Another Chance: A Rowdyruff Boys Story
by MrZinogre
Summary: Hated by their city and haunted by their past, three preteen boys struggle to find their purpose with the new life granted by a motherly daycare teacher. What path will they take when given another chance?
1. Prologue

Prologue

6 Years Ago-

The city of Townsville was in grave danger. Black pillars of smoke billowed from countless buildings. Multitudes of great structures barely surviving inhuman damage. The three famous little heroines stood in the middle of a street intersection, walls of flame surrounded the three girls as they assumed a defensive position, back to back to back. Their dresses torn, their bodies worn and bruised, yet neither the redhead, blonde nor the brunette dare let their guard down.

"Blossom? I'm-I'm scared," whimpered the pig-tailed blonde to the redhead.

The redhead in the cherry dress kept her eyes on the angry flames while the ominous giggling of young boys bombarded them from all sides. "It's okay, Bubbles. We're with you. Just stay in formation and we'll be fine."

The short haired brunette growled angrily. "C'mon! These boys are getting on my nerves. We're sitting ducks out here. Let's get in there and take 'em out!"

"No, stay in formation," sternly repeated the long haired redhead, "we'll take them as a team. The Rowdyruff boys will just pick us off if we fight them one on one."

The brunette pouted and folded her arms. "Hmph. Speak for yourself," she muttered.

"Buttercup, I'm serious. We can't beat the Rowdyruff Boys with strength alone. We stand a better chance if-"

"Ow! What the-!?"

A tiny green orb of energy slammed into Buttercup's face and exploded, leaving singe marks on her already tattered green dress. Her head whipped from left to right. Nothing but giggles and flames. A look upward revealed the identity of the owner of that energy ball. Also with black hair, green eyes and dressed in green, floated her evil counterpart. He laughed jeeringly and taunted her with a slap of his behind.

"Why, you little-!"

"Buttercup! No!" Blossom cried after her, but all that remained of her sister was a green streak of light as she launched herself up in pursuit of the boy in green.

Blossom knew that Buttercup was tough. But so was her Rowdyruff boy counterpart, Butch. Perhaps he was even tougher. It made Blossom sick to admit that, even if it were just in her mind.

She let let herself get distracted by Buttercup's absence. That fact was made painfully obvious when a black sneaker made contact with her cheek at a breakneck speed. The force sent her flying into a building behind her. Her involuntary flight was barely halted by a concrete wall. She peeled off the wall and ungracefully fell to the marble floor below. She was only faintly aware of the bits of concrete that showered her while she was engulfed by darkness. The floor her cheek rested against was surprisingly cool compared to the hot air on her back. The cool marble floor soothed her battered body while hot air covered her like a snug blanket. It was almost as nice as her own bed. If she could just snuggle up and close her eyes…

No, she couldn't! She had to stay awake. Buttercup and Bubbles need her help. Townsville needs her help. Blossom blinked the stars away and scrambled to prop herself up on her hands to regain her bearings. Somehow, she ended up in the lobby of an office building. Sprinklers on the ceiling make a futile attempt to fight the monstrous flames that threaten to consume the lobby.

The preschool aged girl's ears then picked up on a familiar, yet haunting laugh. It was that of a young boy. She hopped to her feet while focusing on a wall of flame where she imagined the entrance of the building used to be. A small, dark figure emerged from the flames and floating ashes while the laughter increased in volume. The silhouette of long, flowing hair and a baseball cap materialized on the figure.

The laughing turned into words. "How does it feel to be the loser, loser?"

It was then was at that moment when the figure gained volume and colour. Red was what she saw. Red cap, red hair and a red shirt. He was the spitting image of Blossom; none other than Brick, the leader of the Rowdyruff boys.

Blossom stumbled back against the wall, an aching pain in her rib cage causing her to clutch her side.

"D-Do you ever shut up?" retorted Blossom through gritted teeth and grunts of discomfort.

Closer and closer Brick stepped until they were an arm's length apart. A haughty smirk formed on Brick's features as his eyes began to glow. "This time, _I'll_ be the one shutting _you_ up!"

Blossom flinched and braced for the scorching heat of Brick's eye lasers, but instead was greeted with the shrill of a familiar voice.

"Get away from her, you bully!"

Seemingly out of nowhere, Bubbles came crashing into her red capped enemy at full speed, knocking him to the ground. Brick's eye lasers missed their target and left an ugly scorched streak on the wall next to Blossom's head. Before he had the chance to get up, Bubbles was already on top of him, delivering punch after punch. Blossom wasn't a very aggressive person, but when backed into a corner, she could be a fierce as any of the girls.

Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to stop Brick. Returning the favour, he delivered her an uppercut to the chin, effectively knocking the blonde off of him. He took the opportunity to pounce at her, but Buttercup intercepted with an icy breath. Brick was effectively frozen in place, encased in ice.

Bubbles sat still on the floor for a few seconds, her blue eyes locked onto Brick's ice encased form. And then as if suddenly remembering where she was, her eyes snapped to Blossom. "Blossom! Are you okay?" she asked, scrambling to the redhead's side.

Blossom let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding as she accepted Bubbles' helping hand. "Yeah, I'm-" She doubled over, coughing up a lungful of smoke. "… I'll be fine. Thanks, Bubbles."

She looked at Brick in his icy prison, knowing it will only be a matter of seconds before he breaks out. The girls relocated outside, where the air was fresher and visibility was higher. With her arm across Bubbles for support, she floated up above the suffocating flames and away from the smoke in order to regain some composure for the imminent continuation of the fight. Incidentally, the girls caught sight of a pair of green streaks in the distance; Buttercup and Butch.

The streaks danced in the sky like angry hornets, chasing and clashing into each other with a resounding 'boom.' Buttercup was definitely living up to her reputation of being the toughest fighter as she went toe-to-toe with her evil counterpart. The streaks of light intersected for the last time and then both hurtled toward the ground, smashing into the park below like a meteor. Startled birds took flight in all directions above the point of impact.

Both Blossom and Bubbles looked at each other in silence. Who won? Neither could tell from here.

Seconds later, a distant scream came from one of the fighters, followed by a great explosion and a blinding green light. Silence followed.

"Come on," Blossom simply said, flying toward ground zero of the explosion. Blossom hoped beyond hope that it was Buttercup that made the final blow. She didn't want to know the result of the battle but she had to. Her heart raced when she stopped just above the crater.

Someone was in there. Blossom's eyes fixated on the figure in the crater, adjusting to the sudden change in lighting. Whoever it was seems to be laying face-down and not moving. Blossom dared not think the unthinkable.

As dust dissipated and her eyes adjusted, she could make out a head of black hair and green clothes. It couldn't be, could it? Did Buttercup defeat Butch? As she could make out the details, she recognized the tattered green dress, the soiled white stocking and the scuffed Mary-Jane's shoes. Blossom's heart sank as she stared down her worst fear in utter shock.

"AAAH! Is that-!?"

Suddenly remembering Bubbles was with her, Blossom put her arm around her shoulders and turned her around. "Don't look," she said softly. She wanted to have time to process what was transpiring herself but she had to be strong for Bubbles.

"Buttercup, is – is she…?" Bubbles trailed off, putting her hands over her face and sobbing.

"I don't know," Blossom answered, looking back down at Blossom's still form over her shoulder, "but we have to stop them because Buttercup won't be the last person they hurt. I need your help to protect Townsville, Bubbles."

Bubbles sniffled and rubbed her eyes. "Yeah. Okay," She said quietly. "But what do we do?"

"We take the boys out while they're still separated," Blossom said. "I bet that worm, Butch is tired by now. He's probably slipped by us so he can recover. Let's hunt him down and teach him a lesson. For Buttercup,"

At that, she flew high up into the sky and scanned for any sign of Butch. Sure enough, her ears picked up the sound of someone rummaging through an ice cream truck at the edge of the park. Blossom knew ice cream trucks all too well to confuse the familiar sounds for anything else. Concentrating on the sound, she heard the voice of her target: "A good fight deserves a good treat!"

"Save some for me!"

Blossom gestured to get Bubbles' attention. "Bubbles, over there." She pointed at the ice cream truck in the distance.

Bubbles nodded knowingly and they both headed for the truck. With a quick check of her x-ray vision, Blossom was able to identify that the person inside was indeed Butch stealing from the abandoned ice cream truck. Her anger at him couldn't have burned hotter at the moment. How could he do such a thing to Buttercup and then steal ice cream like it was nothing?

Before she knew it, she found herself lifting the truck over her heard

"Huh? HEY!" Yelled Butch from within the truck. "Back off, I found this first!"

In stead of answering, Blossom tossed the truck high into the air. Bubbles followed up by striking the truck with her laser beams, intensely heating up the truck.

"Yeowch!" Butch broke out of the truck as it reached its apex. "Are you kidding me!? That was perfectly good ice cream you ruined!" He growled. "You're gonna pay for that!" Despite the heat, Butch took hold of the truck by its rear axle and hurled it toward the girls.

Both dived out of the way just as the truck crashed between them. Blossom picked herself up, poised to launch herself at him. "I've had it with you, Butch! I have no tolerance for pure evil like you!"

"Bonk!"

She was interrupted by an impact to the side of her head, knocking her into the truck with a force great enough to knock it over.

What followed was a dopey laugh. While Blossom shook the stars from her eyes. Standing before her was boy with a blonde curtain haircut and a blue shirt. He hefted a baseball bat made of pure energy, looking pretty proud of himself.

Butch laughed from overhead. "Hahaha, nice one, Boomer!"

Boomer looked up at his green clad brother and grinned, basking in the rare praise of his black-haired brother. "Not bad, huh?" He produced an innocent grin, belying his previous actions.

He seemed to have completely forgotten that Blossom was still in his presence. He's such a moron, but it was fine by her.

Taking the opportunity, she aimed her eye lasers at Boomer, somehow catching him off guard. The pair of bright red beams dug at his flesh with little effect, but enough to cause the boy to recoil in shock and pain. Bubbles was quick to follow up and fry him with with an electricity ball before he could recover, effectively locking his muscles while screamed behind clenched teeth. Blossom then had ample time to dive at him and smash him head-first into the ground before the blue arcs of energy even had time to dissipate. "Owwwww," Boomer groaned while Blossom got up and dusted herself off. As it turned out, teamwork was the answer to defeating these boys. As long as they can take them out before Brick gets in the way, they could stand a fighting chance.

"Hey, you jerks! Not fair!" Butch snapped from above while diving down to retaliate.

"You're next!" Blossom yelled. She and Bubbles launched themselves at Butch, both connecting their fists to his face with a double uppercut. Blossom could imagine that they hit him with enough combined force to send him into orbit. Perhaps he would if Bubbles didn't pursue him a few hundred meters up and grabbed him by the ankle.

She spun around like a spin top while clutching Butch's leg, both a blur of blue and green. When she him go, he rocketed into the pavement at nearly the speed of a cannonball. He impacted the ground like one, too, sending broken tarmac and chunks of earth flying in his wake.

"Let's give him a double laser attack for good measure," Blossom said, her eyes glowing. Bubbles nodded and followed suit. Groaning in pain, Butch rolled on his back and held his arm in front of himself, bracing for the inevitable scorching lasers.

They were seconds too late. Brick came flying in with a kick to Blossom's stomach. He hit her in such an angle that would send her flying into Bubbles, which she did. Both girls collided into a car parked on the side of the road. The poor vehicle's alarm wailed in response, as if crying in pain.

"Yeah! Nailed it!" Brick cried out triumphantly, his fists thrust into the air. "And just in time to save your sorry butts," he added with his words directed to Butch and Boomer.

Butch floated up beside Brick, dusting himself off. "Yeah, yeah..." he muttered dismissively with a roll of his eyes.

Boomer joined the other two boys. "We had them for a while," he piped in meekly.

"And somehow you messed it up right?" Brick asked. With arms folded, he shot his brother an accusatory glare.

"Huh? Me? Why me?" Boomer exclaimed.

Brick retorted, "Because it's always you." Boomer looked a little wounded at that remark. "But that's not important. What is important is the Powerpuff Losers." All three pairs of eyes fell to the girls. Evil grins formed on their faces.

"Don't think for a second that you've won yet," hissed Blossom while slowly lifting herself into the air until at eye-level with the boys.

"Oh, really?" scoffed Brick, "Three on two? You can barely handle three on three." He stretched and rotated his arm, loosening himself up for another round of fighting. "You don't know when to quit, do you? Oh well, your funeral."

Bubbles was livid and quaking with anger. It was something even Blossom rarely sees. She jumped at Brick, ready to let him have it. "Funeral this!" she shrieked.

The boys were frozen in a wide-eyed stare, struggling to process Bubbles' reaction.

Halfway to the boys, Bubbles got struck with some kind of beam. She screamed and fell to the ground in a heap.

"Bubbles!" Blossom exclaimed while running to her blue clad sister. She kneeled beside her and sat her up. "Bubbles! What's going on?"

"I don't feel so good," Bubbles replied weakly.

"What happened to y-AAAAH!" Blossom was hit in the back with the same beam. The searing pain coursed through her whole body. Strength left her while she slumped over.

"Make that four on two."

The voice was familiar to both the girls and the boys as they looked to the owner of the voice. "Mojo Jojo!" All five said in unison.

With a flourish, the evil mastermind let his cape go form around him, leaving it to dance in the wind, and revealing his classically villainous attire; the signature blue suit with white gloves, and boots.

He was barely the monkey that he once was. His features, gnarled and savage. His skin a deformed green hue. His fur, wild. Finally, under the container upon his head is his hideously formed brain, the source of his incredible intelligence.

He laughed menacingly. "That's right! It is me! Mojo Jojo! I am here!"

Brick whirled around to face Mojo Jojo and voiced his protest. "What are you doing here?"

"My boys! Uncle Jojo couldn't possibly let the girls hurt his dear boys... again."

Brick shot Mojo Jojo a skeptical look. "Uh-huh. And did we look like we're struggling? We can finish them off ourselves. Right boys?"

"Right!" The other boys shouted in unison.

"Just let me have this," Mojo Jojo pleaded, "I have been waiting so long for this very moment. Yes, the moment where I finally defeat the Powerpuff Girls. Where I become the instrument of their demise. And then I can finally destroy Townsville and take over the world! In that order!"

During his rant, he met the disapproving scowl of the three boys, where he smiled sheepishly back at them. "Well, you helped too, of course!"

While brandishing a weapon containing a canister filled with a dark fluid, he further added, "That's why I struck them with this ray gun! Yes, a ray gun infused with the anti-X formula. Now the Powerpuff Girls are powerless! They have no powers. They are like normal little girls!"

Mojo Jojo grinned at the two remaining girls as he holstered his gun, his sharp, jagged teeth gleaming against the embers around them. "You heard that right, girls. It is time to meet your end. Your end is coming now. I know the boys would like to finish you off. Isn't that right, boys?"

Brick lowered himself until his feet touched the ground before the girls followed by Butch and Boomer. "You got that right," Brick said.

"It's time for some sweet, sweet revenge," Butch added.

"Remember when you killed us?" Boomer asked the girls.

"Now it's our turn," announced Butch.

Without her powers, Blossom could feel the full effects of their fight with the Rowdyruff Boys. Aching and exhausted, she barely had the strength to hold on to Bubbles, but hold her tight, she did; as hard as she could. "You won't get away with this," Blossom snapped defiantly, putting as much life as her body would let her into her words. "Good always prevails over evil. You'll see!"

Brick dismissed her words with a nonchalant wave of his hand. "Blah, blah, blah. Heard it before. Don't care." He raised his hands into the air, producing a glowing red ball of energy. It pulsated and grew with time. "How about we get fancy and go out with a bang, eh? I came up with this move myself. I call it the Triple Finisher. Name pending. Ready boys?"

"Ready!" The other two boys added their energy to the ball, causing it to grow triple its size and emit a blinding white light.

Mojo Jojo's look of glee turned into that of worry. "Uh, wait. Boys. How much energy is that thing producing? What is its destructive radius?"

"I dunno," came Brick's simple reply, causing Mojo Jojo further worry as wondered if he was standing back far enough.

It was at this point that Blossom knew that there was nothing she could do to stop it. She cuddled Bubbles tight. "Bubbles, I'm so sorry. I tried so hard to protect you and Townsville, but... but..." Fear, sadness and anger overwhelmed her, clouding the thoughts she wanted to convey to Bubbles in their final moments. There was too much to say, and too little time to say it. It frustrated her to tears.

Bubbles said nothing but wrapped an arm around her, which brought Blossom a measure of comfort even at a time like this. As the light above their heads grew with intensity, they shut their eyes and braced themselves for the end.

The ball of light suddenly disappeared, accompanied with the tortured screams of the three boys.

Blossom snapped her eyes open. All three boys were encased in a ray of energy fired from somewhere behind them.

They slumped down in a heap, giving way to reveal to Blossom a feisty little girl in a green dress holding a ray gun.

Blossom couldn't believe her eyes. "B-Buttercup?" Despite being as battered and bruised, Buttercup lived up to her reputation of being the toughest fighter. Quite literally, in this case.

"Hey, what gives?" Brick groaned weakly, only to be cut off by another zap of the ray gun. The beam splashed upon impact, hitting the other two boys. Their voices raised in a cacophony of agony while Buttercup mercilessly kept the trigger squeezed.

"Next time you pick a fight with me, make sure you finish the job!" She hissed. Her words were marred with rage. "Too bad there won't be a next time!"

Mojo Jojo looked on with shock. How was she still alive? How did she get that gun? He insitinctively looked at his belt where his ray gun was supposed to be holstered. It was gone. Suddenly it all clicked. Somehow, she sneaked up on him and stole the gun. He was witnessing his victory get snatched away from him. He jumped up and down in anger. "Give that back! Return that ray gun to me, Mojo Jojo! That ray gun is mine. It belongs to me. I am the owner of that ray gun!"

Buttercup finally let up from the onslaught, noticing the container for the fluid was nearly empty. She must have given the boys a heavy dose of the anti-x formula. "Oh, you want this back, huh?" Without warning, she hurled it at Mojo Jojo's face. It smashed into pieces against his skull. Mojo Jojo didn't even have enough time to let the pain register before Buttercup's foot came flying into his face. She relentlessly followed up with a flurry of kicks and punches until Mojo Jojo collapsed to the ground in a bloody mess.

"Buttercup! You're okay!" Blossom exclaimed, struggling to get up. Buttercup ran up to her two sisters and helped them both to their feet.

"Yeah, of course I am," the brunette replied, thumping a fist against her chest for emphasis. "I don't go out that easily. Just needed a little nap and I'm back in the game."

Bubbles teared up and threw herself at Buttercup, hugging her tight. "I-I thought you were gone!"

"Aw, come on, don't be all mushy like that," Buttercup said, blushing.

Blossom put a hand on Buttercup's shoulder. "Well, I'm glad you're with us. The team wouldn't be the same without you. And thanks for saving us."

Since the commotion died down, people of the town left their places of safety bit by bit. Some formed a crowd around the girls, cheering for their victory. Emergency responders soon arrived afterward to help the hurt, fight the fires and cuff the criminals.

The girls sat at the back of an ambulance, sharing a blanket while they watched the police take Mojo Jojo into their cruiser for another jail term. The flashes of the emergency vehicles periodically highlighted his gnarled features as he stared daggers back at the girls.

A tall man in a lab coat broke free from the cheering crowd and came running at the three heroines. "Girls! Girls! I'm so glad to see you're alright! I was so worried about you!"

"Professor!" The Powerpuff girls cried out, hopping off the truck running at him for a great, big hug.

While the four embraced, Blossom was first to pipe up, "I don't know how 'alright' we are, Professor. We're pretty beaten up. And Bubbles and I, I think we lost our powers. Mojo Jojo hit us with some kind of power sapping ray gun."

"Anti-x, is it?" the professor mused. "If I'm correct, it should wear off within a few days depending on how much you absorbed."

"The same goes for them?" Buttercup asked, jerking her head toward the still recovering Rowdyruff Boys.

The professor closed his eyes and nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid so."

They broke the hug, left to ponder over the three groaning menaces before them.

"Let's finish them once and for all, then!" Buttercup suggested.

"We can't do that!" Blossom protested. "They are not a threat right now. Let's just throw them jail."

"Throw these monsters in jail?" Buttercup scoffed. "You've gotta be kidding me. What happens when they get their powers back?"

"But we can't stoop to their level!"

"Are you blind!? Look around you!" Buttercup gestured to the city around them. Everywhere Blossom looked was wrought with fire and destruction. Fire marshals and emergency crews were already hard at work but it was obvious that they would have a long night ahead of them. "Look at the city! Look at us! Don't tell me you're going to risk this happening again because your stupid morals tell you to keep these monsters alive!"

Blossom hated to admit it but Buttercup had a point. Once the Rowdyruff boys regain their powers – however long that takes – no prison will be able to hold them and no authority would be able to stop them. The girls were barely able to defeat them, and this time could be chalked up to pure luck. Would it be proper to put the city at risk like this again?

Blossom took a long, hard look at the scowling faces of the boys and then sighed and turned away from them, placing her fingertips against her temple. "Fine. Just make it quick."

Bubbles yelped and covered her eyes, knowing what's coming next.

"With pleasure," Buttercup intoned, her eyes already glowing to prime a deadly pair of lasers.

At this point, the boys were well enough to sit up and comprehend exactly what was going to happen.

"Oh boy, this is it," Brick gulped.

"Again..." added Boomer.

A woman pushed through the crowd, waving at Buttercup to stop.

"For shame, Buttercup! I have taught you better than to resort to such violence!"

Buttercup blinked in shock. "M-Ms. Keane!?"

Ms. Keane wagged her finger at the girls, taking on a chiding motherly tone. "You girls have done a good job saving the day, but haven't I taught you not to solve your problems peacefully? Have you been listening to anything I've said, or could it be that Professor Utonium is a bad influence on you?"

She emphasized the last point by glaring at the Professor, who in turn blushed and put his hands up in defense.

"No, no! You've got me all wrong!"

"But Ms. Keane! They're pure evil!" Blossom tried to reason.

"They're just boys!" Ms. Keane pointed out, "Very naughty and misguided boys, but children all the same."

Buttercup cut in once more, "But look at-"

Her words was cut short by a disapproving glare from their school teacher.

The three heroines looked down in shame. "Yes, Ms. Keane..."

Ms. Keane spun on her heel and faced the three boys with hands on her hips. "Now, as for you boys, I cannot begin to describe how disappointed I am in you. Such a brazen disregard for life and property will not go unpunished!"

Brick turned his nose up at the teacher. "Huh? Who the heck are you, lady!?"

"Brick, is it? The 'leader' among you three? It's absolutely disgraceful what you get these boys to do. You're all going to learn that there are consequences for your actions."

"Who do you think you are!? You can't tell us what to do!" snapped Brick as he stood up and dusted his shirt off.

"Oh, yes I can! Effective today, all three of you are living with me. I already have the papers ready and your things moved to my home."

The boys were left wide-eyed "How is that even possible!? You can't do that!" Brick turned to Butch. "Can she?" Butch just looked at him and shrugged.

"I just did," Ms. Keane answered for him. "And the first thing I will have you three do is write a personal, hand-written letter of apology to _every_ owner of _every_ property you destroyed, detailing what you have done, why you are sorry and what you are going to do to help them fix it. And if they ask for assistance, I expect you to keep your word and assist with the repairs.

The boys instinctively looked out at the destroyed and dilapidated landscape before them. Colour drained from their shock-stricken faces. "She… she can't do that, right? Right!?" Boomer fearfully asked. The other boys didn't reply.

"In the meantime, you're all grounded. That means no TV, no video games, no candy and no skateboards. Am I clear?"

The boys were left speechless. Brick broke the silence between the boys as he broke down crying, instantly dropping his tough guy facade. "W-w-what? N-nooo! But I just got Bone Breakers 3!" He fell to the ground, gracelessly wailing while clutching Ms. Keane by the ankle. Shamelessly, he let his tears flow. "It's-It's not fair! Y-you can't do this to me! Whyyyyyyyy!?"

Ms. Keane nodded curtly at the professor and his girls. "I will see you soon, girls. Professor." She left the scene while the blubbering Brick clutched her leg and let himself get dragged along. The other two boys dejectedly followed close behind.

"Well, erm, that just happened," Professor Utonium muttered while watching the four go. "I really hope she knows what she's doing."

"I really hope so too," came Blossom's quiet reply. Experiencing such a close brush with death and fearing the loss of her sisters made this day unforgettable. She wasn't prepared for this. None of them were. Despite the victory, she inwardly kicked herself for the many failures in the process.

"I don't know how yet, but somehow we got to get stronger," she voiced aloud, "We can't let this happen again." She looked over her shoulder at Blossom and Bubbles, fighting back tears. "And I don't want to lose any of you."

Buttercup triumphantly pounded her fist into her open palm. "Not gonna happen. We're the Powerpuff Girls! Nobody can beat us. And we'll make sure that if those stupid boys so much as sneeze wrong, they're dead meat!"

Bubbles smiled, trying to cheer the team up. "We won, right? Let's just enjoy our victory and worry about it later."

Blossom smiled back, quickly brushing away a tear that escaped from her eye. "Bubbles is right. Everyone is fine in the end and that's what matters."

Again, the professor scooped up the weary and tired girls. "You've done me proud, girls! The day is saved thanks to you! This deserves a celebration. But first, how about we go you checked out to make sure you're all okay and then take you home for a nice, hot bath and pizza, hm?"

The three little heroines laughed cheered.


	2. Last Day of Freedom

Chapter 2

Present Day

Golden light filtered though the bedroom window, attacking the eyes of a young redhead. Silence filled the room with the exception to the muted chirping of songbirds outside. With barely open eyes, he sat up and firmly slapped his cheeks with his hands to force himself awake. On a lazy summer weekend like this, he would normally pull his pillow over his head and sleep for another hour, but not today. Today is a special day.

He slipped out of his bed and jumped into his fuzzy red slippers. He knew he had a pretty good internal clock, but what time was it really? While yawning and stretching, he looked at the digital clock on the wall opposite of his bed.

6:55. _Is that the right time?_ His sleep addled brain struggled to grasp the situation he was in. _It's 6:55. I'm late_. Gradually, panic set in as he found himself zipping himself to the bathroom. His long red hair was disheveled but he wasn't concerned about that. He opted to simply brush his teeth and wash his face before zipping by his brothers' rooms and throwing himself at the curved staircase downstairs.

The delicious smell of breakfast cooking wafted into his nostrils while he slid down the banister. Ms. Keane was already standing before the stove with a spatula in hand. Though still in her night gown, she was alert as ever. The delicious aroma of egg and cinnamon already began to cover the scent of her early morning coffee. "Good morning, Brick. You're up quite early," she said without even turning her head to see him. How Ms. Keane was able to identify Brick so easily remained a mystery to him but he had no time to ponder it.

"Hi, mom," Brick returned, rather hurriedly. "No time to talk, gotta go!" A streak of red light bounced around the kitchen until Brick ended up sitting at the kitchen table, milk and sugary cereal ready to be poured into the bowl before him. Before a single grain of cereal could hit the bowl, the box was plucked from his hands.

Ms. Keane stood behind him, eyes furrowed as she took a chiding tone. She inspected the box's contents with a knowing eye. "Brick, I don't know why you're wasting your allowance on this cereal. This has next to no nutritional value and is certainly not conducive to the growth of a healthy young mind. Can't you just wait until I'm finished cooking?"

Brick groaned and slumped in his chair. "Mom," he whined, "I don't have any time. I've got something to do. This is super important!"

Ms. Keane put her hands on her hips, shooting Brick a skeptical stare. "How important?"

"Really important! Literally life or death important!"

Ms. Keane raised an eyebrow. "Literally?"

"Literally!" Brick nearly forgot that he was talking to a teacher; a very smart teacher at that. "Okay. Maybe it's not 'life or death' important but this is really important to me, mom."

Ms. Keane tilted her head to one side. Brick knew that as the classic ' _is that so?'_ look. "And what is this important appointment you have to meet?"

Brick scratched the back of his head as he sheepishly looked away. "A new episode of a TV show..." he mumbled.

Ms. Keane shot and incredulous look at the young boy. "You know I'm not a big fan of you boys watching TV before we gather for breakfast."

"I know, but I thought that's just for school days! And I'll be at the table when the others come down." He floated into the air so that he was eye-level with her. "Please, mom. Don't make me beg."

A long silence followed. Ms. Keane stared at him as if reading his soul through his red eyes. "Did you do your homework?"

"Yup, all of it."

"Did you help old man Jeb with his yard work?"

"Finished yesterday."

"And your room?"

"Clean. Clothes are in the laundry room and you can eat off of the floor."

Another moment of silence followed. Brick could almost see the cogs rotating in Ms. Keane's head. while her dark brows furrowed in thought. Thankfully, her demeanor softened and she sighed. "Fine… but you're still not eating this junk," she said. She twirled on her heel, black hair flowing behind her like the hem of a dress.

"If you're hungry, at least have this." After setting down the box, she reached into one of the many hickory cabinets and pulled out a plate in which she slapped a piece of French toast onto. "This should hold you over until the breakfast is all ready." She finished off by dropping two strawberries onto it and handing it to Brick. "Go on, catch up with your show. But when the boys come down, I expect you to eat at the table with us."

Brick beamed, happily taking the plate. "Awesome! Thanks mom!" he exclaimed, dashing off onto the living room before Ms. Keane even had the chance to reply. He vaulted over the couch and landed before the television cross-legged, plate of French toast in one hand and television remote in the other.

It was 7:00. Just in time. He flicked on the television just as the opening theme for his favourite show, Legendary Fist, stared playing. The fast paced rock theme was catchy and although in Japanese, Brick knew every single word. He'd sing along if his mouth wasn't stuffed with French toast at the moment.

The episode opens with the snappily dressed protagonist, Kentaro standing on top of a building, cool and collected. His rival, Shingo, stands with a cocky smile, he and his henchmen encircling Kentaro.

The tall, stoic protagonist points at his enemy. His deep, commanding voice crudely syncs with his mouth flapping as he speaks: _"Last chance._ _Release the family you are holding hostage and you may leave in peace."_

The scene cuts to a husband, wife and child huddling together while three mobsters stand over them with various weapons at the ready. Then cuts to Shingo laughing maniacally. His mouth flaps in a similar way while he speaks with a sharp voice: _"You are in no place to make demands, Kentaro. You are outclassed and outnumbered. Now die!"_

Kentaro takes a fighting stance. The symbol of a dragon glows on his back through his white blazer and buttoned down dress-shirt.

" _Underestimating your opponents will be your downfall. But if you want the blood of your men on your hands, then so be it!"_

"Oh, now you've done it," Brick said to the television before he popped a strawberry into his mouth. He was completely enthralled by the story. At first, he just watched for the action and all of the wanton destruction this man is capable of causing. But in the end, he found that he took this much interest in Kentaro since he could relate to the character.

Kentaro was an orphan from an early age, born with special powers a mob boss then took him in and used his abilities to gain power. Kentaro, eventually knowing that he was just being used, then had to walk his own way and do what he thought was right.

While Brick couldn't fully understand why Kentaro did some of the things he did, he couldn't deny that he just looks so cool while doing it.

The episode ends with the now shirtless hero calmly walking away from a flaming skyscraper in mid-explosion while the family he saved stands among paramedics. The end credits roll and left Brick bouncing in place, grinning from ear to ear at such an amazing episode.

He was Kentaro's biggest fan.

Another episode of Legendary Fist was scheduled to air next. Although it was an episode that Brick has seen before, he couldn't get enough. He settled down, anticipating the next episode while he waited through the commercials.

The channel suddenly changed. Blinking in confusion, Brick looked over is shoulder to see Butch, still dressed in his green jersey and house shorts. He laid on the couch with the remote in hand.

Brick whirled around to meet his brunette brother's eyes and glowered at him. "Butch! I'm not done. Give that back!"

Butch yawned while he laid on his side atop the sofa. "You've been hogging the TV all day. It's my turn," he said, his voice slightly hoarse as a result of his recent slumber. He yawned again, only to find that the remote had disappeared form his hand and appeared in Brick's. "Hey! Give that back! I want to watch wrestling! Nobody cares about your stupid Japanese cartoons."

Boomer slowly floated in, also still in his pajamas. His blue eyes were fixated on a handheld game but he added to the argument as if fully aware. "I think it's called anime."

"No, idiots. It's _manime"_ Brick made a gesture with his hands as if plastering the word to an invisible wall. "And it's not stupid. It's a story where a bunch of buff dudes punch each other until they explode!"

"Yeah. Cool. Now give me the remote." Butch reached for the remote but was halted by a firm hand against his chest.

"No," Brick snapped back, keeping the remote away from his brunette brother.

"The Fall Brawl is starting is starting today and I don't want to miss it!" Butch smacked Brick's hand away and attempted to grab at the remote but Brick was just a little too quick.

"Then go stream it on your computer or something! Leave me alone!" The two started to wrestle for control of the remote.

"Why don't you stream your show!?"

"Because I was here first!"

"Give it!"

"NO!"

Boomer took a moment form his game to glance at his two quarreling brothers and used the opportunity to find his perch on the sofa.

The fighting abruptly stopped when Butch suddenly twisted around and headed for the kitchen. "Ms. Keane! MS. KEANE! Brick is being a butt!"

Ms. Keane's voice bellowed from the kitchen: "Boys! Come here!"

The three preteens filed into the kitchen and lined up before Ms. Keane. "What's all this commotion about?" she asked.

"Brick is hogging the T.V!" Butch complained. "He's been watching it all day!"

Brick threw his hands out at the ridiculous statement. "All day? Dude, it's 7:30. I've only watched it for half an hour."

"Technically, if you spent the majority of the morning watching T.V. up to this point, Butch's statement is kind of accurate," Boomer interjected.

Brick shot a glare at his blonde brother. "Shut up, Boomer. You're not helping."

"Don't call me an idiot then," Boomer muttered under his breath.

Butch continued with his complaint. "The Fall Brawl is having its opening match today and I want to watch it!"

"See mom? He wants to watch some fake wrestling trash but you know I was there first!"

"Boys, boys!" The mother cut in with a calm but authoritative hand gesture, "Calm down. Listen, I need some help preparing the table for breakfast, so Brick, why don't you let Butch watch the tele and help me?"

Brick's jaw looked about ready to drop while he froze in the middle of his angry gesturing. "What!? Mom! That's not fair!"

"Give him the remote, Brick." Her voice was gentle yet firm. He knew that she had made up her mind.

Brick sighed and pushed the remote into Butch's chest. "Fine."

Finally getting his way, Butch grinned and stuck his tongue out at his red-headed brother. The annoyed Brick reacted with a kick at Butch but the brunette preteen deftly sidestepped his foot and ran back into the living room followed by Boomer.

Whirling around, Brick pouted and folded his arms. "Why did you let _him_ get away with that? I thought you trusted me!"

Almost as if her adopted son said nothing, Ms. Keane patted down the giant cowlick sitting on top of Brick's head and muttered. "Goodness Brick, your hair is a mess." She pulled out a chair and sat down, producing a hairbrush. It was her own brush, recently used for her beautifully tidy black hair. "Come on, we'll talk while I fix that hair of yours," she said while motioning for him to approach.

With arms still crossed, Brick reluctantly obeyed. He leaned back against her as she started to brush his hair. Ms. Keane was gentle with her brush strokes, taking great care not to tug too hard at any strands that may be tangled. It was almost soothing to the frustrated boy. Her expert ministrations to his head gently coaxed the strands of hair straight. "Brick, it's not that I don't trust you. On the contrary, I trust you the most to understand an important lesson."

"What lesson?" Butch questioned with a shrug, "That everything sucks and the whole world is against me?"

"No, brick. Think about this: What is the difference between a leader and a dictator?"

The question she posed made Brick cock his brow in confusion. That seemed to come out of nowhere. "Isn't a dictator just-?"

"You don't have to answer that now," Ms. Keane gently interrupted, "Just keep thinking about that question and when you figure it out, it will all make sense. Now, help me set up the table."

Brick did as he was asked, letting his annoyance at Butch fade while mulled over his adopted mother's words. He knew the answer to the question – at least he thought he did, but what did it have to do with this so-called 'lesson' mom's going on about?

Ms. Keane is the queen of tough love. But it was love nonetheless. If anybody knew how to handle a trio of super-powered children, it was her.

That was why Brick eventually grew to respect her, love her, even. That was why he trusted her words.

At last, the table was set and the food was prepared, prompting Ms. Keane to call for the other two boys. As she and Brick took their seats, Butch strode in dragging Boomer along in a headlock. He raised his free hand, waving to an invisible crowd while Boomer struggled against him.

"El Toro has got the Rattler in a headlock! He's absolutely dominating the ring!" Brick announced in third person.

At the sight of the two, Ms. Keane waggled a finger at Butch. "What did I tell you about rough-housing in the house?"

Proving his surrender, Butch threw up his hands, releasing Boomer from his iron grip. He and the coughing Boomer took their seats. "OK, OK. Sorry. We didn't break anything, though." Butch stated in a defensive tone.

"Good," Ms. Keane nodded curtly. "Then I won't have to punish you. But I don't want you pulling any of your stunts in the house. I know what kind of mess you boys are capable of." She shared out some bacon and fruits to the plates of french toast. Brick immediately plucked one from his plate and popped it in his mouth.

At that, Butch rolled his eyes. "If we can't rough-house in the house, then what's the point of it being called rough-housing?"

Brick paused from his meal, a strip of bacon halfway in his mouth. He shot Butch a look as if saying ' _that's the dumbest thing that has ever come out of your mouth'_ with just his eyes.

Butch looked back at Brick blankly, obviously not getting the message. "What?"

"Come on, kids, eat up before the food gets cold," Ms. Keane said, sitting back down. Very soon, the kitchen was filled with the sound of knife and fork against plate while the family enjoyed their breakfast.

"So boys?" Ms. Keane asked while cutting up a slice of French toast, "Are you excited for your first day in a real school tomorrow?"

Silence immediately followed. The boys quietly exchanged glances at each other and then their adopted mother. Up until this point, they have all been home schooled. None of them have a good reputation in Townsville which made it difficult to attend any school at all. The reason they eventually got admitted into Midway Middle School was because the Powerpuff Girls will also be attending. Nobody trusted them. Everybody feared them. And perhaps to some extent, the Powerpuff Girls feared them too.

"Yeah… about that," Boomer piped up hesitantly. "I don't think we're welcome there."

"Nonsense," chirped Ms. Keane, "I personally vouched for you. I told them how your behavior changed over the years and what responsible young men you are now. Your initiave to help clean up Townsville is all the proof that they need. The teachers shouldn't be giving you any problems."

"What about the other kids?" asked Boomer.

Ms. Keane replied, "What about them?"

Another wave of silence overcame the four at the table.

"As if we'd ever care about what other kids think," retorted Brick, breaking the silence. He sat back in his chair with a smirk. "If they don't like us then tough cookies!"

The other boys didn't look so assured. Brick inwardly worried that his feigned bravado was too little, too late. His hesitation before he put up the act said it all. The truth was that he did care to some degree. Being home schooled and deemed menaces to the city, he had very little in terms of friends. It wasn't that he was tired of Butch, Boomer or even Ms. Keane, but it would be nice to develop some kind of a social life outside of his family. As much as he wish it never bothered him, the isolation left him feeling somewhat lonely at times.

Clearing his throat to end the second wave of awkward silence, Brick got up, excusing himself from the table. "See ya, mom. I'm off."

"Where are you going?" Ms. Keane asked.

"To enjoy my last day of freedom," he replied before putting away his dishes and going upstairs to change.

Boomer followed suit. "Maybe we can get some ice cream. Wishful thinking?" he pondered.

"Yeah, good luck with that," Butch added. He then glanced at Ms. Keane. Ms. Keane's piercing blue eyes flicked in his direction, prompting him to look away and then wordlessly leave the table before she could utter a word.

As she watched Butch leave, Ms. Keane took another sip of her coffee and shook her head. The boy was a complete enigma to her. Brick was headstrong and a bit stubborn at first, but he couldn't hide the natural need for a parental figure and eventually developed a strong bond with her. Boomer, although the quieter of the three, was fairly easy to handle since he was the type that could warm up to just about anybody given enough time and attention.

Butch, on the other hand, was tough to get through. Perhaps it was pride, or maybe he was trying to hold onto the child he once was. Either way, he seemed to just tolerate her and nothing more. He even opted to call her 'Ms. Keane' instead of 'mom' like the others. Not that it was a big issue; It was merely a pleasant surprise for Brick to suddenly call her 'mom' one day and Boomer quickly took after him.

Still, Butch seemed to make a point of it.

In any case, she was determined not to give up on any of the Rowdyruff Boys.

The Rowdyruff Boys left the house together ready to enjoy their last official day of summer in any way they can. Although the sky was bright and cloudless, a frigid breeze threatened the change of a season and the trees were already prepared with reddening of their leaves. Brick walked along their neighborhood sidewalk, one hand casually stuffed in the pocket of his red Letterman jacket and the other wrapped clutching his phone as his thumb lazily flicked through messages. Boomer walked alongside him, both of his hands shoved into his bright blue gilet coat. Butch took flight on Brick's other side. A faint green afterimage trailed behind him as he floated at pace with the other two.

Brick, still looking at his phone, said suddenly, "Butch, would you stop?"

"Stop what?" Butch replied ignorantly.

Brick shoved his phone back into his jacket and side-glanced his brother. "You don't see the rest of us walking?"

Butch didn't seem the least bit concerned. "Yeah. So?"

"Dude, you've got legs. Why don't you use them once in a while before they atrophy?" Brick suggested in a sarcastic tone.

"Atro-what-now?"

Brick blew out a hard, loud sigh and pulled out his phone again. "Never mind."

Butch looked at Boomer who answered on cue, "It has something to do with your muscles getting small and weak."

"I said _never mind,_ Boomer," Brick intoned while his eyes fixated on his phone.

"What are you getting so hissy for?" Butch prodded.

Brick held up two fingers to count the reasons. "One, because people will recognize us more easily if you start using our powers in public. And two, because mom said so."

At that, Butch scowled and pursed his lips. "What are you? A mama's boy now?" He reached out and flicked at the lid of Brick's baseball cap.

Brick immediately clutched his cap protectively against his head. "DON'T touch my hat!" he sneered. His lucky cherry red baseball cap was his trademark and his good luck charm. He never left home without it.

"Just listen to him, Butch," Boomer pleaded, "What if an ice cream truck comes by and refuses us service because you were seen flying?"

"We just take it." Said Butch.

"You mean steal it. And then mom finds out and we all get in trouble. Good plan," answered Brick, his words oozing with sarcasm.

Butch made a show of rolling his eyes and folding his arms, but complied anyway. "Fine, but we'd better get ice cream." He looked at Brickh and shook his head slowly. "You've changed, Brick."

"Yeah. It's called growing up." Brick flashed a patronizing smirk and patted Butch's shoulder. "You should try it sometime."

At Brick's retort, Boomer looked at Butch and smiled a little.

"Shut up," Butch said.

"Huh?" peeped Boomer, "I didn't say anything."

Butch just scowled even harder. "You were thinking it. Shut up."

The boys' journey led them to a pond in the woods near their home, as per usual. It was a quiet and secluded spot that they claimed as their own. They were free to use their powers here without other suspicious eyes upon them. Trees canopied the surrounding with a thick brush of reddening leaves but sunlight shimmered off of the pond, providing plenty of light. Several trees and large rocks were marred with scorch marks and large gashes as a result of multiple games of ninja played here. A well used fire pit sat in the middle of a crude circle of logs and rocks where several candy wrappers were grouped into a half-charred pile.

After horsing around in their self-made campsite for a while, the boys decided to send Boomer out to get ice cream since they deemed him the cutest of the three (much to Boomer's distaste) and least likely to get rejected by the ice cream man.

Now wearing a scarf, Brick drilled a hole into the log next to where he sat with his heat vision and stuck his mint ice cream cone into the newly formed cup holder. He floated before an old gnarled oak tree while pulling the red scarf over the lower half of his face. "Hey, Boomer, check this out," he called to the little blonde that was busy with a handheld video game. He paused the game and looked up at his copper haired brother.

The air cooled around them until he fanned out a series of knife-like icicles in his right hand. "Frozen kunai attack!"

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

With a lightning quick flick of his wrists, the frozen projectiles found their mark and embedded themselves into the poor tree. The tree crackled sharply while the area around the impact zone began to freeze and crystalize.

Boomer expressed his mild surprise with an intoned "Wow, where did you learn to do that?"

Brick struck a pose, fashioning himself as what he'd thought to be ninja-like. "I've learned this ancient technique form Master Koriryu where we trained from the highest mountains. Only the most dedicated of ninjas of his clan can learn this technique!"

"No, I mean, for real," Boomer corrected.

Brick's composure broke a little. "Oh. Erm, you know. Took some inspiration from your moves. A little of this, a little of that, mixed with my own genius, of course," he crowed.

Boomer crossed his legs and went back to his game. "Oh. Yeah, that's pretty cool, I guess."

"Pfft, pretty cool?" Brick scoffed, pulling off his scarf. "What are you, a critic now? There's more where that came from!" He glanced at his lonely, melting ice cream and levitated it back into his hand. With a breath he flash-froze it before it could start dripping. "But first, I'm finishing my ice cream," he said before chomping down on it.

Meanwhile, Butch was off a little ways from the campsite, idly licking his own cone of ice cream while crouched over a trail of hard working ants, going back and forth from their ant hill to their pilgrimage for food. A sadistic smile slowly crept on Butch's face and his eyes began to glow.

"Hey, Butch. You're not lighting ants on fire, are you?" Brick called from the camp.

The glow suddenly disappeared and he shot up, whirling around to face his brother with such force that the green hood on his sweatshirt whipped off from his head. "What? Of course not! What kind of sick freak would do that?" he lied, blushing as he walked over to their site.

It was strange. It was almost as if Brick had a sixth sense for any creature in danger. "Uh-huh. Sure," Brick replied, taking another lap at his ice cream. "Anyway. Got any cool techniques you've been working on?"

"Yeah, of course," Butch said proudly. He finished off his ice cream and dusted his hands off. "I just need a volunteer to use it on." His green eyes landed onto Boomer. "Hey. Boomer. Get up."

Suddenly realizing his intent, Boomer's eyes widened and he slunk back until his back hit a tree. "Nuh-uh! No way!" He held his hands out to protect himself. "I've learned from last time!"

Butch rolled his eyes. "Pfffft. Wimp."

Brick rubbed his chin. "On second thought, we should take it easy since we've got school tomorrow," he said.

At the mention of school, Butch's smile faded and his features hardened.

Brick raised an eyebrow at him. "What's the matter? Don't tell me you're scared of a little school!"

"No, it's not that," Butch responded, "It's… The Powerpuff Girls are going to be there. What are we going to do when we see them?"

Brick shook his head. "Who cares? We're there to learn stuff just like everybody else. They can't do anything to us. Besides, it's literally been years since they've last seen us. They probably won't even recognize us."

Butch looked over to the pond, his fists balled up tight. "But don't you hate them? They humiliated us. They even killed us! Doesn't that make you angry?"

Brick blinked a few times, a little taken aback. "Well, yeah, I guess. But-"

"This is our chance," Butch turned around on his heel to face Brick. "We can get back at them! We're stronger than we ever were before!"

"Dude, hold on a second," Brick interrupted. "First of all, we've grown up but so have they. We don't fully know how they're like now. Don't just pick fights with what you don't know. Secondly-"

"That's right!" Butch pounded a fist into his open hand like a hammer into a nail. "We'll scope them out, figure out how strong they are and then find the right moment to destroy them!"

Brick pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ugh. That- that's not what I meant," he groaned. "You know what? We'll discuss this later, Butch." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket looked up into the darkening sky. "It's getting late. Let's just go home. We've got a big day tomorrow."

At that, the Rowdyruff Boys headed home, all with the following day weighing on their minds.


	3. New Year, New Worries

Blossom took a step back from the bulletin board in the quiet school hallway and nodded proudly at her handiwork. Before her was a poster featuring the famous red-head heroine, wearing a smart looking pink suit, a big red bow in her hair and a big, well practised grin. She stood behind Bold pink and red text that read:

 _Make your school year SUPER_

 _Vote Blossom Utonium for Class President_

Of course, she didn't normally dress in such an uptight looking outfit. Normally, she'd dress herself in sneakers, a miniskirt with bicycle shorts and a belly-length denim jacket of some sort, mostly pink or red, of course. But for this poster, she made sure to look as professional and suited for leadership as possible. "Looking good," she said to her own image, flashing it a thumbs up. "You've got this, Blossom."

"Taking talking to yourself to the next level, are you?" teased a gruff yet feminine voice.

Blossom didn't need to look at her to see who it was. "Oh, hey Buttercup. I'm a little surprised that you've actually come to school early this time."

A sharp snort erupted from Buttercup's tiny nostrils. "Well then, thanks for the definitely not condescending comment."

Blossom turned to the raven haired heroine, getting the first good look at her since supper last night. None of the girls looked or dressed the same way their six-year-old selves but it was increasingly difficult to believe that she was the same person.

Gone were the frilly dresses and shoes. Now it's black shorts and punk-ish sneakers. A green and black patterned triangular scarf hung limply around her neck and bunched lazily over her neck and chest. It was tucked between her tank top and open hooded sweatshirt, which barely clung to her shoulders. One thing that remained rather constant was her short black hair, save for the longer bangs and the green streaks that sparsely highlighted it.

"Sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out like that. I'm not trying to imply anything." admitted Blossom rather sheepishly.

Buttercup waved a hand dismissively in Blossom's general direction. "Don't worry about it. It's cool." She looked at the poster Blossom recently put up and raised a brow. "So you're actually going through with it, eh?"

Blossom nodded proudly "Running for class president? That's right. I figured I'd get a head start with the campaign."

"Erm, _'Make your_ _school_ _year super?'_ Isn't that a little corny?" Buttercup questioned.

"Hm? You think so?" Blossom turned back to her poster. "I've done a lot of research on marketing before making this slogan. I think it's simple and catchy."

The raven haired girl made a bit of a face but sighed in resignation."Yeah, you're expert on this stuff. It's probably just me then." Buttercup shifted her weight, clutching the school bag over her shoulder with one hand her hitching her thumb behind her belt with the other. "So between schoolwork, homework and kicking bad guys' butts, how are you going to make time for duties as class president?"

At that, Blossom smiled and put her hands on her hips. "Probably the same way that you make time for your band," she replied.

"Right. Fair point." She tilted her head in a direction somewhere down the school's hallway. "Speaking of, I'm going to head off to the music room to check out the new drum kit we got this year."

"Ah, the real reason why you've come at this time," she said.

Buttercup breathed out something that approximated to a tiny chuckle from her cold features. "Hardly. I remember we have a meeting with the principal and some of the teachers." She pointed to a device on her left wrist; one of the three custom made smartwatches commissioned to the Powerpuff Girls from the mayor of Townsville. "Give me a call when they come by."

Blossom instinctively took a look at her own watch as Buttercup started to take her leave. "Yeah, will do."

Kids started to trickle in at an increasing rate as the school hour drew near. The once quiet halls were starting to increase in volume with the putter-patter of feet and the hum of many voices. With only a couple posters left, Blossom decided to post the last of them in the library. She figured Bubbles might already be there. She seemed to have forgotten about the lunch Professor Utonium packed her.

Sure enough, when Blossom went through the glass double doors of the library, it didn't take long to find Bubbles sitting at a table by the window. A book was open in front of her but her attention was elsewhere. She was looking out the window, watching a bird that perched on the windowsill. She looked as cute as ever with her baby blue skirt and matching ribbons that tied her golden hair into pigtails. Of the three girls, Blossom was confident that Bubbles changed the least.

"Hey Bubbles," Blossom hailed while taking a seat by the table.

"Hm? Oh hey Blossom," greeted Bubbles in a soft yet chipper soprano. "Are you coming to join me?"

Blossom reached into her pink courier style schoolbag, and pulled out Bubbles' lunchbox. "I thought you'd be here. I just wanted to give you this."

Bubbles' eyes lit up at the sight of the item Blossom carried. "Oh! Thank you," Bubbles said, accepting the lunch box. "The professor made my favourite lunch. How could I forget?"

Not even bunny printed tin box could withhold the scent of fresh Korean style dumplings and pickled cabbage. She took a big whiff and released a pleasured sigh.

Bubbles had an affinity for eastern style food, which shouldn't be too much of a surprise given her current interests and choice of music. She was very fortunate to have a father that can accommodate her tastes.

"Actually, while I'm here, I'd like your opinion on this," Blossom said while sliding her poster on the table toward Bubbles.

"Oh. For your election into the student body," the young heroine in blue commented while picking up the poster.

Blossom nodded her confirmation. "I'd like to get another opinion on this poster."

Bubbles looked at the poster, her features contorting into a thoughtful frown as her mental cogs started to turn. Her mouth opened and then closed multiple times; a sign that she kept reassessing her words just before they leave her mouth. The golden bangles on her arms jingled softly while she rotated the poster this way and that. "Erm... the poster looks nice," she started carefully. "But, _'Make your school year super?'_ I don't know... doesn't that seem a little corny?"

Blossom's shoulders sagged. "You too? Ugh..." She dropped her head and let it hit the table in utter disappointment. "Buttercup said the exact same thing..."

"B-but this looks really good! I mean, you look really smart in this picture. And the way your hair is done up in a bun here is cute," Bubbles added hurriedly.

Blossom removed her face from the table and rested her chin on her folded arms. "Thanks, Bubbles," she said gently.

Bubbles smiled back. Blossom could almost see the tension dissipating from Bubbles' body as if having a cloud of steam silently ejecting from her pores. She could always count on Bubbles to do her best to put a smile on everyone's face, perhaps to a fault.

Blossom's superhuman senses kicked in, picking up on the sound of a legion of chugging diesel engines. What followed were the hisses of multiple pneumatic suspension systems and then the incomprehensible chatter of hundreds of children.

The redhead heroine checked her watch. "Ah. The buses came right on time." She stood up, giving her back a little stretch. "I'm going to see if any of my friends are here. Mind putting some of these posters up in the library for me?"

Bubbles looked up at Blossom with a smile as bright as the sun itself. "Okey-dokey," she confirmed.

Blossom walked backwards as she started to take her leave. "You remembered your watch, right?" she asked, pointing to the pink device on her wrist as indication.

In turn, Bubbles giggled. She pulled down the bangle on her left wrist to reveal a blue watch of her own that got caught under it. "Of course. I'm not that forgetful, you know."

This time, Blossom let out a giggle of her own as she took her leave. "Of course not. See you soon." Now filled with other kids, teachers and parents getting ready for the first day, she navigated the much busier school halls toward the front entrance of the school. Some of the people she passed by waved and said their hellos in which she'd return the friendly gesture. Several newcomers to the school, those who'd recognize her anyway, would jump and shout in excitement at the novelty of being in the same school as the city-famous Powerpuff Girls. Blossom found it a little embarrassing but flattering nonetheless. They'll get over it eventually. Everyone does.

The front doors were kept wide open by the sheer volume of people going in and out. She pushed her way outside and to the peak of the grand staircase. Perched atop the wide concrete banister that snaked alongside the staircase, she had a perfect view of the roundabout where the convoy of school buses dropped a wave of kids at the sidewalk. Some ran for the park and fields to the sides to get a bit of playtime in before school starts while others headed straight up the stairs and ramps. She took a deep breath of fresh air, letting the bright morning light bathe her and gently heat her denim jacket. She enjoyed school but she would miss playing in the sun all day.

Among the crowd stood out a tall girl with curly chestnut hair. She was dressed in a simple sweatshirt and leggings with white sneakers. Blossom spotted her immediately when she hopped off the bus. "Hey! Holly!" called Blossom, waving her down.

Holly's hazel eyes blinked and looked around, confused, but eventually zeroed in on her. Her look of confusion suddenly changed into a familiar smile. "Oh! Hey Blossom!"

Holly ran toward her while Blossom met her half way at the bottom of the staircase. Blossom held her fist before her for a fist bump but Holly pulled her in for a hug. It was a little awkward since Blossom only stood to about the height of her chest. She felt like she was hugging someone like Professor Utonium rather than a girl her age, but she didn't mind. They were close friends after all.

"7th grade... can you believe it?" Asked Holly as she broke the hug.

"Barely. Gosh, a couple more years and we'll be in high school! I'm still trying to wrap my head around that."

The two friends walked together inside the school.

A figure caught her attention from the corner of her eye. Her focus shifted from Holly to a kid she hasn't seen in this school before. He looked about her age. Same height too.

Could he be? No, he looks so different.

He was dressed in a red and white Letterman jacket.

Black Jeans.

Black and white high-top sneakers.

Red baseball cap tilted to the side over long red hair.

And then he looked at her with his big red eyes.

Suddenly, everybody else disappeared but the other boy, who seemed to have shrunk by over a foot, had his jacket replaced with a simple red shirt with a black stripe. It didn't take long for her to realize that she shrunk to his height somehow, her clothes replaced with a tattered sleeveless red dress. Flames erupted from all around her. A series of haunting giggles echoed from all sides as the small young boy with long red hair and a baseball cap stared at her with murderous intent. He strode toward her menacingly. She felt the prickling cold of the wall behind her against the blazing heat that surrounded the two.

"How does it feel to be the loser, loser?" the kid asked int a mocking tone.

Normally she would dismiss that as inane banter at the level of a preschool aged child, but from this boy, it carried a weight that pressed hard on her chest, threatening to stop her breathing. Fear set in when she realized that she wasn't just fighting for the future of Townsville but for her own life.

"Hey! Blossom! Are you alright?" Holly waved a hand in front of her and suddenly she was back to her normal height, in her normal clothes and staring at the kid across the hall. He seemed a little puzzled by her starring but walked on anyway.

Blossom blinked out of her trance and absently replied, "Erm, yeah. Sorry."

Holly glanced over her shoulder at the boy who caught her red-headed friend's attention. "What? Something about that kid?" she briefly paused and then produced a sly smile. "You fancy him, don't you?" she teased playfully nudging Blossom with an elbow.

Blossom rolled her eyes with an incredulous shake of her head. "Oh, please..." she said, continuing down the hall. Holly kept pace with her, which wasn't a difficult task considering her comparatively long legs.

"Then what was all that about?" she asked. "Is he your long lost brother or something?"

"You think we look alike?" asked Blossom.

"Well... yeah, kind of," Holly admitted. "No offence, but I wouldn't even bat an eye if you say the two of you were twins or something."

Blossom rubbed her chin thoughtfully, mulling over her best friend's words. "Hm, that's what I'm afraid of," she said.

"Okay. Unless you're experiencing existential turmoil over the semantics of falling in love with a kid that looks like you, you've completely lost me."

She looked over her shoulder to see if that other kid was around. It didn't look like it but she continued in a hushed tone, just in case. "Remember that incident about 6 years ago?"

"I guess," Holly replied carefully, "But there has been a lot of incidents in this city."

"I mean that big one, when the whole city was on lockdown and there had to be mass evacuations some places."

Blossom noticed Holly's brow knotting while struggling to jog her memory. "Vaguely," came Holly's answer, "I don't recall a whole lot from that time. And I doubt I was told that much about it by my parents since I was pretty young."

"It was when the girls and I had a battle with the Rowdyruff Boys. A very difficult one, at that. We almost didn't make it." Blossom admitted solemnly.

"Ah, I remember that! It was all over the-" suddenly she gasped, instinctively turning around to face the new kid's last known position, though they were long out of sight from the boy. "You don't suppose he's..."

Blossom looked up at her friend and nodded knowingly. "Brick from the Rowdyruff Boys? He might be. That kid looks too similar to how I remember Brick to rule the possibility out yet too different to say that's him for sure."

The hallway they walked through opened up into a wide area, a hub of sorts to connect the major arteries of the school. The balcony on the second floor wrapped around the near perfect square enclosure. Directly in the centre of this area was a tree, planted below the foundation of the school and surrounded by wooden benches. The tree was tall enough to reach the second level of the school. The skylight directly above it provided the necessary energy for the tree and natural light for the people in the building.

Blossom couldn't imagine what the designers were thinking with this. Sure, it looks nice, but maintenance would be a real chore for this thing. How the roots didn't push up the tiles surrounding it and damage the foundation was beyond her. Her best guess was that an underground sprinkler system was put in place to guide the roots to grow downward instead of outward. She understood that this was a monument to the founder of Spruce Springs Secondary School, but surely, they could come up with a more practical monument?

Blossom shook the thoughts out of her head. Her brain must be going into overdrive again, brought on by the stress of the possibility of standing in the same building as the Rowdyruff Boys. She needed to relax. A nice refreshing drink should suffice.

"But if that's him," Holly mused, still at her side, "then where is Butch and Boomer?"

Blossom headed to one of the vending machines that lined one of the brick walls and popped a few coins in. "Exactly. I would be more sure of myself if I saw him with those two. I am sure they would stick out as much as he does."

Holly scanned her surroundings as if looking for any sign of the boys in question. "This _is_ a pretty big school. Maybe we just didn't bump into them yet."

Blossom punched a button for a bottle of apple juice. After a few whirring noises and 'ka-chunks,' the bottle fell into the bottom slot in which she promptly picked up. "Yeah. They could be anywhere in this maze of a school," she added.

She popped the lid and took a big swig of the juice. She had plenty to eat and drink in her bag but she figured she could use a few extra calories. She was starting to wonder if she's not taking enough nutrition into her superhuman body and it was stunting her growth. A quick look at Holly made her think that she was on to something.

Holly shoved her hands into the pockets of her sweatshirt and examined her best friend's expression. They've known each other long enough to identify when the other is feeling troubled. "But maybe it isn't him. And even if it is, he doesn't seem to be causing any trouble right now," she reasoned. "Maybe we should just not worry about it for now."

Blossom lowered her head and nodded while offering her bottle of apple juice to Holly. Her friend accepted it with a thankful nod and took a sip before giving it back. "You're right, Holly. I shouldn't stress out over something that is not happening." If only simply not worrying about it was so easy.

"Hey!" A young male voice called out to the two. A charismatic boy with freckles led a group of 7th graders, all hard workers, high achievers and junior athletes.

"Hey Zack!" The girls greeted as the group caught up to them. The group of students shared greetings and talked about their summer. Blossom didn't quite have the same relationship with these kids as she did with Holly, but she was happy to talk with them and have them as company.

Still, she couldn't rid herself of that nagging worry in the back of her mind. She looked for the right moment, when attention was no longer focused on her and slunk out of the boisterous conversation circle.

Finding a quiet spot, she tapped the face of her pink banded smartwatch and engaged the Powerpuff Girls' intercom.

Buttercup had made herself at home at the drum set in the music room. Her headphones belted out one of her favourite rock songs into her ear while she played in sync with the drummer in the song. Between the blasting music and the rythmic crashes and thumps of the drumset, she couldn't hear her watch chime. Good thing it had a vibrating function as well.

Upon feeling the sensation on her wrist, she pulled her headphones off and set down the drumsticks on top of the snare drum. A quick check of her watch revealed an image of Blossom and a symbol indicating she wants to communicate. She keyed the conformation to answer, linking her to a live image of both Blossom and Bubbles. "Hey Blossom, what's up?" Buttercup hailed between light pants. She worked up a mild sweat from her recent activities.

"Is everything okay?" chimed in Bubbles' voice.

"Yeah. Yeah, everything's fine," Blossom responded, sounding a little distracted. "Hey, um. Have you seen anybody strange lately? Like a blonde kid with blue eyes and a black haired kid with green eyes? Probably wearing blue and green, respectively?"

Buttercup pursed her lips in thought. "Uh, yeah. You just described Bubbles and I."

"Actually, Buttercup, I think you wear more black than green, now-"

"Bubbles, nobody cares," Buttercup interjected curtly.

"I'm talking about boys," corrected Blossom, "Boys that may look like one of us."

"Boys that kind of look like us?" Bubbles questioned. "The only people that I can think of that fit that description are the Rowdyruff Boys."

Blossom's voice was sullen as she responded "Yeah..."

That seemed to come out of nowhere.

"I've been here in the library most of the time and I didn't notice anybody who looks like them," Bubbles answered.

"And I've been in the music room this whole time. Didn't see much people at all, never mind anybody suspicious." added Buttercup. "Besides, knowing those morons, we'd be hearing screams and explosions way before we'd be able to see them."

Blossom chuckled. "You're right. It would be a miracle if those boys could take more than five steps without destroying something. I'm probably just paranoid."

"Now I'm curious," said Bubbles, "What made you so paranoid in the first place?"

Blossom rubbed the back of her head. "I saw this kid – a boy with red hair and a red baseball cap. He looked so much like..." she shook her head. "Anyway, thanks for putting my mind at ease. See you soon," she said. She cut the audio/video feed, leaving Buttercup to her own thoughts.

A kid that looks like Brick? She was curious to see for herself what that kid looks like. There was no way he could be the real deal. At worst, he's probably just some snot-nosed hipster who thinks villains like the Rowdyruff Boys are cool.

Not that it should be a concern for her. She had more important things to worry about, like her music. As if on cue, the door to the classroom swung open, just as Buttercup was about to slip her headphones back on. Her eyes lit up when she recognized who came in.

Marshal Winters was the first to poke his head in. His platinum hair lengthened into bangs that swept over his left temple. His dark eyes, both friendly and mischievous. Despite being about average height for a 7th grade boy, his body had definite signs of athleticism. It showed, even through his simple black tee and dark jeans."What's up, Buttercup?" he greeted with a crooked smile and a nod of his head. His round face and button nose added a bit of extra boyish charm to his smile. He was a bit of a goofball at times yet quite mature for his age.

Buttercup floated to him and greeted him with a fist bump. "Not so harsh, Marsh." The two giggled at the little rhyming game they've made.

"You guys- gag me with a spoon, that was awful," Vinny Firelli interjected, producing a deep-toned chuckle of his own while glided inside. He appeared almost the exact opposite of Marshal. He was tall and lanky, almost awkwardly so. He was so skinny that Buttercup sometimes irrationally feared that his body would snap if someone so much as pushes him hard enough. His face was somewhat long, partially covered with a dark brown mop-top that made it difficult for anybody to see his eyes.

Vinny set his bass guitar down beside Marshal's guitar. He then greeted the still giggling Buttercup with a mid-five and a fist bump. "Better watch it, bucko," Buttercup jokingly warned while resting a forearm on Marshal's shoulder, "Me 'n Marsh might start writing 'Ninny Vinny' into our next songs."

"Oh, you'd better not!" Vinny replied, joining the others in a laughing fit.

"So are Raven and J.P. coming, or what?" Buttercup asked when the laughter died down.

"Yeah, probably late. Typical," said Marshal while bearing a smirk.

"It's no big deal," Vinny said, "We'll just meet in the usual place at recess and come for practise at lunch."

The school bell sounded, indicating the beginning of the day. Vinny looked up at the clock over the entrance of the classroom. "It's about that time. You know what that means..."

Both Buttercup and Marshal made the same sound effect while lashing invisible whips. "Wha-chhh!" Amused at their unintentional unison, the two looked at each other and laughed.

The three left their music equipment but grabbed their schoolbags to head for their homeroom. The halls were congested with kids and it made navigation difficult. While Buttercup could have easily just flown over the others, she would rather be stuck in the crowd with her friends. Buttercup's watch chimed again. This time, it was the alarm for the Powerpuff Girls' emergency hotline.

She tapped Marshal and Vinny on the shoulder. When they looked at her, she pointed to her watch and they instantly got the message. "Guys, I gotta go. See you soon, alright?" she said hurriedly while lifting herself up above the crowd.

She zipped off in a flash of green light, stopping above the tree monument where the air was a little quieter, and engaged the comm. All three girls seemed to be getting a call from the school.

"Principal Goldring, what seems to be the problem? Are you OK?" asked the voice of Blossom.

"Yes girls," answered the principal, "I apologize for being this late, but I want to call you for something important."

"Erm, principal Goldring... I don't mean to be rude, but this line is only for emergencies," Blossom said, her discomfort at the change of authority in this situation was obvious in her voice.

"I know," said the principal, "Again, my apologies but I believe this to be very important. Perhaps even dire. I'm not calling on you as students but as the Powerpuff Girls." A confused silence followed his voice.

Buttercup quickly broke the silence by asking the question on everybody's mind. "As the Powerpuff Girls? What do you mean, principal Goldring?"

"Come to my office, girls. I will explain everything there."

Buttercup needed no further prompt. She headed into the principal's office, Blossom and Bubbles entered at nearly the same time. Principal Goldring was already leaning on his desk, dressed in his deep blue suit, kept as tidy as his well groomed silver hair.

"Welcome, girls," principal said, motioning for them to have a seat.

The girls did so while the principal walked around to sit behind his desk.

"So, what seems to be the problem?" Blossom asked, concern clearly present on her girlish features.

"Girls..." the principal breathed out heavily, clasping his hands together. "We apologize for coming to you with this news so late. The fact is that there has been much back-and-forth about the matter but admissions had just confirmed the news: The children you know as the Rowdyruff Boys will be attending this school."

"WHAT!?" Buttercup shot out of her chair with such force that she knocked it over. She was only dully aware of the shrill yelp of a startled Bubbles as she pulled her knees to her chest on Blossom's opposite side. Adrenaline rushed through Buttercup's system as she found herself leaning on the principal's desk. "You can't be serious!"

"Buttercup..." Blossom said in a warning tone.

"Blossom was right. Blossom, you were right this whole time!"

"Buttercup." Blossom's tone was calm, yet firm. Buttercup knew what her sister wanted.

She took a deep breath and regained her composure. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Chill out," Buttercup said, quite ironically. She could still feel the trembling in her extremities. She really needed to hit something.

The red-head sat still in her chair, her legs neatly crossed and her arms folded. What the heck is she thinking right now? How could she be so calm? "Surely you know how dangerous they are," said Blossom.

"Trust me, we know. But they had Ms. Keane personally vouch for them," explained Principal Goldring.

"Ms. Keane?" Bubbles echoed, recognizing the name of their old teacher.

Blossom took the initiative to explain. "She took it upon herself to keep the boys in line, remember?"

"Oh yeah..." the blonde mumbled.

Principal Goldring continued to explain, "We've got records of community service, extracurricular activities, character reference testimonials, the works. On top of that, a good word from Ms. Keane herself, a very respected member of the teaching community, especially here in Spruce Springs Secondary School."

"In other words, you can't refuse admitting them without looking like the bad guy?" Blossom proposed, still not moving an inch.

"You've hit the nail right on the head. While we want to treat our students equally without discrimination we also want to keep these kids safe. And... well, we all know what those boys are capable of." He looked at the three girls and they nodded their confirmation.

"So you want us to watch them?" Blossom asked.

"If you can. I know you are the only ones here who can handle them, so we're going to assign them to all of your classes. Please, whatever happens, we need you to protect this school and everyone inside at all costs."

"You can count on us, Mr. Goldring," Blossom said with an assuring nod.

"Wait wait wait" Buttercup interrupted as something came to mind, "So, what if they are just putting on an act this whole time? What if they are just pretending to be 'good boys' so they could just catch us off guard and hit us where it hurts?"

Blossom raised her brows at Buttercup's question. "Do you think they can put up an act for this long?"

"Do you think they can hold a grudge for this long?"

Blossom rubbed her chin. "Hm. Good point..."

Buttercup was inwardly proud that she presented a counterpoint that Blossom had to think about. She made an internal note to pat herself on the back for that later.

Bubbles, the little wallflower that stayed quiet up until now finally piped in, "But what if they've really changed?"

"Oh Bubs..." Buttercup cooed, shaking her head in pity. "You don't just change character like it's nothing. If you do, then you're just a good actor. But let's face it: those boys have a lot to change before they become anything close to decent."

Deep in thought, Bubbles touched an index finger to her bottom lip and her eyes wandered toward the ceiling. "They've been with Ms. Keane for such a long time now. She's never reported any major problems to us and I'm sure _something_ must have rubbed off on them by now."

Buttercup rolled her eyes. _S_ _ure. They've probably memorized her credit card and PIN by now._

Bubbles continued, "Maybe we should just... I dunno- give them another chance..." she trailed off, confidence in her words petered off as if anticipating criticism even as the words were leaving her mouth.

"They will get another chance when they've earned it," stated Blossom.

"I feel like they already have," Bubbles argued, "You said so yourself, Blossom. You can't imagine the Rowdyruff Boys taking five steps without destroying something but they are here right now and the school is fine. And didn't Principal Goldring mention all of the nice things they've done in the community? They could really be nice people now."

" _Could,_ Bubbles. 'Could' is not good enough because it goes both ways," Blossom lectured. "That makes Buttercup's point just as valid. For all we know, they did all of those things because they had to. We can't read their minds but we can watch their actions."

Bubbles rubbed her arm and looked down at her boots. "Y-yeah. I guess you're right." she replied softly.

Poor Bubbles. She was far from stupid, but she was a bit childish and incredibly naive at times. She always wanted to give people the benefit of the doubt. She's just too kind and trusting for her own good. Buttercup feared that someone may try to take advantage of that someday.

"In any case," Blossom continued, "that's what we're here for. We have to stay vigilant, girls. We don't know what their true intentions are so we have to be ready for anything. Stay on your guard but don't provoke them. The last thing we need is to start a fight in this school."

Yeah, as if. Buttercup is not afraid of those punks. Why should she be? She's the baddest girl in school. If they try something she'll make them eat dirt. Suddenly, Buttercup noticed that Blossom was staring at her.

"Got that, Buttercup?" she asked.

"Huh? What are you singling ME out for?" Buttercup defensively demanded.

Blossom got up and put a hand on Buttercup's shoulder. "Look. Buttercup. I know how much those boys rile you up sometimes. I know you're smart and you have the best intentions, but you have a history of letting your emotions get in the way of reason. I'm just looking out for you."

Buttercup sighed and found sudden intense interest in the coat hook on the door to her left.

Blossom leaned closer to Buttercup and added in a hushed tone, "And be sure to keep an eye on Bubbles for me. If anything, I'm sure they will target her first."

"Yeah, sure," Buttercup responded in a similar tone.

"So I think that covers just about everything." The Principal said, "I'm sure you're all itching to experience your first day of school."

 _Ha, that's rich._

"So I'll just write you three some letters of exclusion let you get back to your class."

Buttercup's fingers still trembled with anxious desire for action. She frowned at the realization that the morning has barely started but she wanted nothing more than for recess to come. She needed relief. She needed to vent somehow.

Today is going to be a long day.


	4. The Boys, Feared by Most

\- ch4 -

The trek from the principal's office to his homeroom felt like a torturous eternity to Boomer, even with his brothers at his side. Since the boys had been given a long-winded lecture from the principal that could easily be summarized to 'don't do bad things and you won't get in trouble,' they had to come into class 15 minutes late. Being late in itself wasn't a bother to Boomer, but it was the attention from the class that spooked him. He didn't know when or how he started to feel this way, but he would rather disappear than face the hardship of his reputation.

"Well, here we are," Brick announced while he carelessly swung the door to the classroom open. The heavy door slammed into the stopper with a thud, making some of the students inside jump in their seats. It was obvious that Brick didn't have the same reservations that Boomer had. It was almost as if Brick thrived off of attention and making a scene.

When the boys walked in, the entire classroom fell silent, thick with tension. For a moment, even the teacher was without words. All eyes were on the three, judging as Boomer feared.

Despite all internal reasoning against it, Boomer looked at the students. The entire classroom seemed to darken and blur. The only things that were crystal clear were the dozens of eyes upon them. Hateful, wrathful eyes. Fidgeting, he cursed himself for looking at them.

Beforehand, Brick had told him not to worry. They were just afraid of the Rowdyruff Boys. But that was exactly the problem. He didn't want everybody to be afraid of him. He wanted to have friends. He didn't think Brick or Butch would ever understand, let alone care.

"H-hello, boys," the teacher finally said. The woman was short for an adult and fairly stout, yet very pretty for what looks to be a thirty-something-year-old. With the bright, pastel colours she sported, Boomer pictured the teacher as an elegantly decorated cake. Her look of surprise turned into a coy smile. "My name is Miss. Gateau. Welcome to our class." She pretended that the trio was no different than anybody else, but it was blatantly obvious to the young blonde that she knew exactly who they were. "We were just doing an activity where we say our names and one interesting thing about ourselves. Since you're already standing, why don't you three introduce yourselves? We'll go by alphabetical order."

The teacher picked up a bright yellow folder. "Let's see... uh, Boomer?"

Boomer glanced at the students again and then back at the teacher. "That's me..."

The teacher checked something off in the folder with a pen. "Alright. Please, introduce yourself and tell us something about you you'd like to share."

"My name is Boomer Keane-"

"Tch!"

The scoffing noise came from a girl near the back of the room. She sat slouched against her chair, one arm hanging over the back. While most of the other kids looked at him with an obstinate hatred, her green eyes kept locked on him like a tigress ready to pounce at the slightest provocation. Boomer knew that the Powerpuff Girls would be in this class. All of the Rowdyruff Boys knew at least that much from the briefing with the principal prior to arriving. The girls must have announced the boys' presence in the class while they were at the meeting.

That tough looking girl was Buttercup. He was sure of it. He struggled to finish his introduction, painfully aware of the attention on him. "I like... um..." he scratched his shoulder. His mind was going into a bit of a haze. "I like a lot of stuff, I guess."

"What kind of stuff?" asked the teacher.

"Erm, I dunno... fun stuff?"

Miss. Gateau held in a chuckle. "Okay, Boomer. Please take a seat at any desk you'd like."

Great. He made himself look like an idiot in front of the entire class. So much for first impressions. He quickly scanned the seats. He didn't want to take one anywhere near Buttercup, that's for sure.

The copper haired girl with the big red ribbon in her hair must be Blossom. She sat front and centre in of the class, sitting up straight while she scanned Boomer from head to toe. He could tell she was analyzing him; Brick had a similar countenance when filling people's information into his mental index. He hated the feeling of being scrutinized at every second. He'd definitely want a few kids between him and Blossom.

The blonde girl with pigtails sitting by the window should be Bubbles. Though she didn't look too happy to see any of the boys, she seemed the least threatening in her demeanour. Boomer wasn't exactly put at ease by her, but given his options of which Powerpuff Girl to sit near, Bubbles would be the best choice. There were a couple of empty seats near her, so he took one.

Miss. Gateau took another look at the folder. "Next up is Brick. Would you mind introducing yourself, too?"

Brick took the prompt to stand in front of the class where Boomer stood. Hands in pockets, he looked much more calm and at ease than Boomer felt.

"What's up, everyone? My name is Brick Keane. Interesting thing about me? Hm, let's see..." He put a finger to his chin, looking as if he was lost in thought. "I died once. Oh, and my killer just so happens to be right here in this room," he said, almost as if it were a casual reflection. Tension slammed back into the class like a wall as the entire class was unsure of what he was going to do next. Not even Boomer knew. Miss. Gateau put a hand over her chest and wordlessly glanced over her class before looking back at Brick.

"What's with all the weird looks?" Brick shrugged dismissively. "It's no big deal, really. Just a cool piece of trivia I thought you'd like to know. And don't worry ladies and gentlemen, thanks to _Him_ , I got better. Rest assured it won't ever happen again." At that moment, he looked directly at Blossom and added, "I'll make sure of it." With that, he picked a desk near the middle of the room and made his way over.

Miss. Gateau tittered nervously. "Right, a little... shocking, but thank you for sharing that with us, Brick. Last, but not least is Butch."

"Yeah. Name's Butch and I like breaking stuff."

"Better not be in this school..." Blossom warned.

"We'll see." Without further prompt, Butch made his way to an empty seat fairly close to Boomer.

"Breaking stuff? Really?" Boomer whispered to Butch.

"Yeah. I'm not wrong, am I? At least I didn't look like a twit when I was up there."

Boomer put an elbow on his desk and rested his head on his hand, opting to just get on with the class rather than listening to Butch.

Miss. Gateau clasped her hands together. Despite her calm demeanour, Boomer could identify the stress in her voice. "Alright, class. Now that we've got that out of the way, I'd like to go over a few things in preparation for your next set of classes."

The class, thankfully enough, proceeded as normal. It wasn't too dissimilar to how Ms. Keane would teach the boys at home. The boys' old classroom was heavily decorated with books, colourful posters and educational nick-knacks. This was fairly similar, albeit at a much larger scale. Perhaps it was the other way around. Ms. Keane, being a career teacher, knew exactly how to emulate the schoolroom experience.

Miss. Gateau handed out their agendas along with their schedules and a few other documents. She summarized what they were going to cover for her literature class. Now assured that there was no immediate danger, she, along with the other 28 or so students seemed to have mellowed out significantly as the got into the swing of things. Science was the subject for the next hour, but the students had to have their parents or guardians sign content forms to enter the laboratories, so they spent the time summarizing the curriculum and working on a few classroom activities.

The school bell rang, indicating recess. The other kids seemed excited to go out and play but Boomer found himself dreading the moment. The classroom came to life while the students got up and put their things away, ready to head out.

"Don't forget to sign your forms or you won't be able to enter the science labs!" Miss Gateau called after the kids as they streamed out of the door.

Boomer sat in place, passively watching the kids go. His eyes wandered toward Bubbles, who passed by his desk with a scowl.

"Boomer," she called stopping in front of his desk. She put on a look that was supposed to approximate to an intimidating leer, but it was clear that it wasn't a look Bubbles had experience with. Her expression came off more as a cutesy pout. "We're watching you and your buddies so you'd better keep your nose clean or we'll clean it for you." When the words left her mouth, she paused and then rubbed the back of her head, her feeble attempt at intimidation already broken. "Ah, I mean, not literally. That's gross. It was a... metaphor?"

"You mean an idiom?" Boomer interjected.

"Right, idiom. Thanks..." She cleared her throat and put on her scowl. "Ahem. So, just watch yourself, alright?"

Boomer looked up at her. He didn't know what compelled him, but he asked, "Does this mean you hate me?"

Bubbles blinked, a little taken aback. "Yes. I mean, no. I mean... yes-maybe? You're bad guys, right? We're not supposed to like bad guys..."

Boomer looked toward the exit of the classroom. Most of the students were gone, save for a few stragglers that decided to chat with their teacher. "So is that what they all think of me? Of us?" he asked.

Bubbles rubbed her arm in meditation. Her bangles jingled softly with her fidgeting. "Well... yeah, I guess." An awkward silence passed between them for a few seconds. "B-but you don't seem like the Boomer I remember..."

Boomer played with the edge of his binder. "Yeah? Maybe I've just grown up a bit," he admitted. He looked up at Bubbles. "It looks like you've grown up some too."

The two blondes tentatively exchanged thin smiles. Producing a befitting softer look, Bubbles said, "I was kind of rude. Sorry. What I should have said is: 'Welcome to Spruce Springs Secondary.' Do your best, Boomer." Without further delay, she pulled her books to her chest and disappeared out the door.

Boomer smiled a bit. The conversation was a bit awkward, but it wasn't so bad. Perhaps he had the wrong outlook on his school year. He just wanted to fit in and feel like he belonged somewhere. That wasn't too much to ask for, was it? It's no different from what most kids his age want. The problem was that he wasn't like most kids his age, and he's got to make up for a bad reputation to boot. However, after talking to Bubbles, he started to believe that maybe he'd have a chance at fitting in somewhere.

"HEY! You done staring off into space like a dim-wit? C'mon, we've got 30 minutes to kill!" Brick poked his head out of the doorway and beckoned him over.

Boomer heaved an exasperated sigh and packed his belongings into his bag. Brick has always been bossy like this. Maybe they haven't changed as much as he'd like. He heaved his bag over his shoulder with and joined his brothers to explore the school.

The Rowdyruff Boys walked by a particularly loud group of kids engaged in horseplay. In the midst of a poke fight, one of them passed wind while dodging a finger coming his way.

"Did you just fart!?" a scrawny kid in the group asked.

"Doorknob!" Amid childish laughter, a stout boy punched the offender in the arm.

"Ow!" The victim groaned, though still though titters of laughter. He seemed to be experiencing some fun despite the pain.

"You didn't say 'safety' in time! Now you've gotta touch a doorknob!" the stout kid announced, punching the poor kid in the arm again.

Brick rolled his eyes as Butch watched them, snickering at their little game.

"Ignore him," Brick said to Boomer while putting an arm over his shoulders and speeding up their pace. "Listen, were you speaking to that girl? Bubbles?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"Um, yeah, kind of," Boomer replied, unwittingly matching his brother's volume. "She, uh, just told me to watch myself or something. "But she actually seemed kind of nice in the end."

Brick narrowed his eyes. "Keep your guard up. Those Powerpuff Girls – they're not our friends. I don't care how 'nice' they are. You let your guard down, they stab you in the back. If they tell you anything, report to me, got it?"

Boomer nodded.

"Good. Here." Brick pushed something into Boomer's chest. He looked down cupping his hands under the object. It was Brick's smartphone. "Huh? What's this for?"

"Snap a photo of me," he answered, floating up into the air. "I want a really cool picture of me; something to put on my social media page."

"... right," Boomer intoned while he aimed the phone at his red haired brother to take a shot.

After what seemed like an eternity of class prep and curriculum summary after curriculum summary, the final bell of the day rang. Buttercup slouched in her chair and lifted her emerald eyes to the ceiling.

"Finally," she sighed. She couldn't really understand why but her eagerness for the school day to end so she could go to the music room made time come to an excruciating crawl.

A soft thump on her desk interrupted her thoughts. She found Raven Hei seated on her desk and looking back at her. Raven's straight black hair was swept in such a way that obstructed the left half of her perfectly round glasses. "So, like, the guy you mentioned is in one of my classes," she said.

Buttercup looked at her friend, confused. "Huh?"

"The red haired kid? Brick? Yeah, he's in my social studies class."

"Dude, my condolences," Buttercup replied. "He's in my advanced maths class. I'm not looking forward to breathing the same air as that obnoxious know-it-all."

"Is he really that bad?" Raven inquired curiously.

"He's in your social studies class. You tell me," Buttercup replied

Raven crossed her legs and pensively stared out into nothing. "I dunno. There isn't much to say about him. He does seem smart and he looks pretty cute."

Buttercup recoiled and made a face. "Him? Cute? Ew."

"No. like, he has big red eyes, soft androgynous features..."

"Ugh, gonna make me lose my lunch."

"No, really," Raven insisted. "He could easily pass off as a girl if he dressed the part."

Buttercup chuckled a bit. "Heh, I bet he'd love to hear that. What, are you into him or something?"

Raven seemed wounded at the suggestion. "Seriously, why can't I simply acknowledge that someone is physically attractive without the entire world thinking I have a crush on them?"

"Sorry."

Raven waved a hand dismissively. "It's cool. Besides, remember my boy theory?"

"Your... boy theory?" Buttercup raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"I, like, sent you a diagram of my theory and everything. You don't remember?" Raven asked. She raised three fingers on a hand. "Alright, I'll refresh you. So, most guys have two of three main attractive traits: cute, smart and nice. If he's cute and nice, he's an idiot. If he's cute and smart, he's a jerk. And if he's smart and nice, he's a total dork."

"Wow, wanna talk about cups being half empty?" Buttercup quipped.

"Well, it's just a theory, and it's worked so far," returned Raven, "and that means if Brick is cute and smart then he must be a jerk."

Buttercup hummed meditatively. "Hm, I can't argue with that result."

Now that the traffic of students had thinned out, Buttercup walked with Raven on their way out to the music room to meet up with the boys.

"At least we've got a couple of classes together," Buttercup said.

"Yeah," added Raven, "This one and our music class. No synth or guitar, though. Got stuck playing the oboe."

"Oboe?" Buttercup repeated.

"Yeah. Oboe," answered Raven, "I thought you know what an oboe is."

"I do know what an oboe is. I just like saying 'oboe.' Oboe."

The two friends started to make a game of taking turns playing with the sound of the word, repeating the word with different inflections and emphasis.

"Oboe?" Raven continued with an inflection that made the word sound like a question.

"Oboe!" Buttercup repeated with the exact opposite inflection.

"Oh..."

"... bow."

Raven snickered a bit. "I think J.P.'s mannerisms are starting to rub off on us."

The pair allowed themselves to laugh while they entered the music room. Sure enough, Marshal and Vinny were already inside and setting up their amps and tuning their guitar and bass respectively.

Marshal looked up at the two newcomers and grinned. "Yo! Finally, we can start! I tuned your guitar for you, Raven."

"Cool, where is it?" Asked Raven. Marshal responded by nodding his head to his left, looking at the guitar leaned against the back wall by the entrance to the private studios.

Meanwhile, J.P. Revaux set up his cameras to film the band playing. Upon spotting the girls appear, J.P. swung his handheld camcorder toward the girls with one hand and pulled out his mobile phone with the other. "I'm filming you guys," he announced with a wave.

The girls exchanged hand slaps and fist bumps with J.P. in greeting. The kid was a bit of an odd fellow. Often wearing a military style canvas cap, he let his auburn locks of hair gently curl around it. Without fail, he'd wear a button-up jacket of similar material, either olive green or dark grey. This time around, it was the green one. The others often debate whether he wears the same two articles that he interchanges of if he has dozens of the same wardrobe in his closet. Despite being only one year younger than the rest of the gang, he could easily blend into a crowd of 2nd graders.

He may be a bit socially awkward and the band at first wrote him off as a creepy little tag-along, but shortly after getting to know him, they've all come to love him for how cool and genuine he was. He also happened to be an extremely talented visual director and camera technician.

Buttercup perched herself upon the stool behind the drum kit and tested her rhythmic control with the bass drum while the others gathered before her in a semi-circle and set up shop. She hefted the drumsticks and then balanced them across her index fingers to test the weight distribution. Finally, she could channel her energy and vent her frustration into something productive.

"So?" Vinny started, partially occupied with adjusting the dials on the face of his bass guitar. "7th grade is pretty different, huh? What are your classes like?"

"Urghhh... don't ask." She emphasized her annoyance with a few hits off of the rack toms and the crash cymbal.

"Alright, I wo-"

Buttercup interrupted Vinny with her tirade. "Every single class I have has at least one of those stupid Rowdyruff Boys. I can't catch a break, dude. What makes it worse is that every time they open their mouths I fight the urge to punch them in the face so hard that they swallow their own teeth."

"Ingesting teeth would be bad for your digestive system," interjected J.P.

Buttercup sighed wistfully at the mental picture. "Yeah. One can hope, Jay. One can hope."

"They still make you that upset?" Marshal asked.

"Yeah, man. You know my story with those guys. Can't stand them. Besides, I don't know about you, but for me it's hard to let go of a grudge against people who actively tried to kill me and my sisters on multiple occasions."

Raven scoffed while testing the distortion pedal attached to her guitar. "Yeah, that would do it."

"Those boys are the worst of the worst. Especially Butch. A complete monster." Buttercup lowered her head and idly twirled the drumsticks in her hands. "So, guys. If any of them bother you for any reason, come straight to me, alright? None of them are going to hurt you. Not as long as I am here."

The others turned to each other and worded their agreement.

Feeling slightly embarrassed, Buttercup cleared her thoat. "Alright, enough of that crap. Gotta get home for dinner tonight. Ready to get this show on the road?"

"Sure. Love Next Door?" Marshal suggested.

The other band members agreed and J.P. gave them the thumbs up.

At that prompt, Buttercup crossed her drumsticks over her head and shouted, "We are the Violent Nabbits and we're here to crash your party and embarrass you in front of all of your friends! One, two, three, four!"

The song started beautifully. The song's tone was hard and dirty like a garage indie band. It was exactly what she needed right now. Buttercup let herself get lost to the music while she banged away on the drums. She was completely enraptured by Marshal's voice when he started the vocal part.

' _Baby, baby, on your way to the classroom,_

 _yeah, baby, I'll meet you in the hall,_

 _yeah, girl, when the day is over,_

 _I'll take your hand and bring you to the mall.'_

If only moments like these could last forever.

The evening sky darkened while the setting autumn sun coated all in its warm touch with a golden hue. Now that school was out, Brick goaded his brothers to break things with him in the old scrapyard at the edge of the town. The other two didn't need much convincing.

The twisted heaps of metal in the scrap yard cast shadows that looked like amorphous monsters crawling along the packed dirt under the boys' feet. Brick took in a big whiff when the three entered the scrap yard. The heavy autumn air did its best to purge the smell of oxidized metal and hexane but the odour of the scrapyard proved too powerful to eliminate. As much as Brick liked fresh air, he could get that pretty much anywhere. He'd rather have his nostrils assaulted with this familiar stench.

This was the boys' second favourite hang-out spot. It was perfect for hide-and-seek since all the metals made cheating with x-ray vision near impossible and there didn't seem to be an end to goodies that they could either collect or destroy.

"Hey!" Butch nudged Boomer and then pointed to a large pile of cars about the size of a three storey building. It stood at the end of a winding path made of piles of rubbish. "Race you to the top of that hill," Butch challenged Boomer while dropping in a two point running stance.

"You're on," Boomer said, matching his raven haired brother's stance.

"Just remember what I said about using your powers here, alright?" Butch warned.

"Geez, _mom._ It's not like I heard you the first million times," Butch replied with an exasperated eye roll. "Ready, set, GO!"

The two sprinted ahead of Brick, somehow managing to be competitive while limiting themselves to the athletic abilities of an average human. The two boys reached the base of the car pile at about the same time but as they quickly hopped up the stacks of cars, Butch scaled to the summit first with Boomer two car heights below.

"HA! I win!" Butch exclaimed while triumphantly pumping his fists into the air. To Boomer's obvious annoyance, Butch took on a mocking sing-song tone while he victory danced in place. "Ha, ha! I am the winner. You are the loser. Na na-na na na!"

Boomer puffed out his cheeks and pouted in response. As he looked off to the side, he spotted something in the distance.

"Look," he called, pointing to a few bottles lined up on top of an overturned merry-go-round roughly 60 metres away. It was likely the remnants of a group of teenagers' clandestine partying. "Bet I can bat anything you throw at me into those bottles over there."

Hands on hips, Butch looked over to where Boomer was pointing and scoffed. "Bet you can't!"

"Bet I can!" Boomer stuck his arm in the gap between destroyed cars and yanked out a piece of a car's drive shaft almost as long as he was tall. While he hopped to the summit, Butch hopped down and collected as many fist sized objects as he could carry.

Brick opted to watch from the sidelines and chew on a stick of bubble gum while he let his legs dangle from the broken down minivan he sat upon.

Now with significant ammunition, Butch hopped up to an adjacent mound of junk and laid the variety of throwable objects at his feet. "Get ready," he said.

Boomer took a few practice swings. "I'm ready," he announced, "Just throw properly or else it doesn't count."

Butch picked up a rock from his collection of projectiles. With a mighty swing of his arm, Butch launched the rock at Boomer at a superhuman speed.

As fast as the rock was, Boomer swung the rod into the rock with surprising accuracy. The rock pinged off of the makeshift bat and annihilated the bottle on the far left side. "Boom!" Boomer exclaimed in triumph.

"Ah, lucky shot. Let's see you try that again," Butch said dismissively.

"Hey! Boomer! What was up with you today?" Brick asked curiously.

"What do you mean?" Boomer asked. His pause was punctuated with a grunt as he swung at another rock Butch threw at him.

"You were acting all quiet and gloomy today. More than usual, I mean," he answered.

"Oh. Yeah..." said Boomer.

"What's going on, then? Talk to me." Brick said.

"I dunno, I just..." he paused to take another swing at an incoming projectile. He was rewarded with a ping and a distant sound of glass breaking. "How are you so confident? Like, aren't you worried that everybody at school hates us?"

Brick shrugged. "Who cares? Since when did you start caring about stuff like that?"

Boomer fell silent.

"They don't like us, then it's their problem," Brick continued, "You got me and Butch. Who needs 'em?"

Boomer muttered, "I guess..." He quietly turned his attention back to batting.

At that moment, Brick began think that perhaps his blonde brother wasn't too happy about how he reacted. He decided to drop the subject and quietly watch the two. Boomer has got to learn to suck it up.

Moments later, distant roars accompanied brief explosions of light caused Butch to stop in his tracks and look toward the scene. "Whoa. Guys, you see that?" he asked.

"Yeah," replied Brick, "heard it too." Soon he identified narrow ribbons of light that zipped in wide arcs and then dissolved into nothing. "The Powerpuff Girls must be fighting something."

"Cool. You think it's a monster or something?" Boomer said, lifting himself into the air a bit. "Let's go watch!"

"No, we're not going to watch. We're going home," Brick asserted staunchly.

"What? Why?" Boomer complained.

"Because I don't care about the Powerpuff Girls' hero trash and neither should you. And stop flying before somebody sees you," barked Brick.

"So you do care what other people think?"

"I care about not being identified if we get seen while were doing something illegal, which we kind of are." Hopping down from his makeshift seat, he spun around and started to take his leave. "We're leaving."

"Whatever," Butch said, hurrying to catch up with Brick, "I'm starving anyway. I wonder if we can get Ms. Keane to buy us some pizza today."

Brick heard Boomer's audible sigh although he resigned to Brick's demand and followed him home.

"Dibs on the television!" Brick called out of nowhere.

"Di- aw, you jerk!" Butch snapped.

"Shoulda called it earlier," Brick said. Today was kind of a long day for him. All he really wanted to do for the rest of the day was eat, watch Legendary Fist and then relax in his room.

A young boy walked down a park, looking over a checklist handed out by his father. There was a lot of weird things here, but he wasn't about to question his father's motives. Not as long as he gets a prize in the end for his good work.

He spotted something fall from a tree. He turned and approached it. Upon closer inspection, it looked to be a chipmunk fallen from a tree. It seemed stunned, but alright overall. Overhead, though was the threat that caused the poor animal to fall down in the first place. A hawk cawed threateningly over the two, ready to snatch its dinner.

"All alone, little guy?" He asked, picking up the small creature. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you." The chipmunk curled in his hands. It was quivering violently, squeaking every once in a while.

The hawk dove at the two, screeching angrily, only to awkwardly jerk to one side in a way that seemed to defy physics. Feathers flew everywhere as it flew away in fear.

The boy paid no mind, petting the chipmunk gently. "I think I'll call you... Squeaky."


	5. We're Just Friends

While the rest of the Violent Nabbits were inside the school with JP, watching the younger student conjure whatever witchcraft it would take to produce his music videos, Buttercup sat on the roof with Marshal, each with an acoustic guitar. She sat on a little bench while Marshal perched on the parapet opposite of her. The cool wind played with his honey hair, which he corrected with a quick flick of his head.

"So you know the band Stand in Opposition?" Marshal asked, idly playing a few notes from his guitar, "It's okay if you don't. You're probably too young to know about them."

"We're the same age, dummy," Buttercup retorted, tucking a few strands of black hair the wind decided to play with behind her ear. "If it's before my time, how is it not before yours?"

Marshal waved a hand dismissively. "All the other kids prattle on about Ellie Beemish or Single Way but I have taste beyond my time."

Buttercup chuckled and shook her head. "You sound like such a hipster, Marsh."

"Oh?" Marshal took on a nasily mock-American Southern accent and said. "Them's fightin' words, pardner!"

Buttercup imitated his accent. "Darn tootin' them's fighin' words!" The two friends laughed at their antics. Buttercup sighed into her next sentence as her laughter died down. "Of course I know. Remember what happened last year? When your neighbors got mad at us because you insisted on playing their entire album on repeat all day? At max volume? With the windows to your bedroom wide open?"

At that, Marshal smiled sheepishly. "Right, almost forgot about that. I can't believe those old fogies called the cops on us. Lucky the police like you, though."

"Yeah, saving Townsville all the time probably got me a few brownie points with the heaters," quipped Buttercup.

Buttercup was rewarded with a smirk from Marshal. "Right. Maybe I should wear a 'Friends With Buttercup' t-shirt from now on."

He pulled out a folded piece of paper form his pocket and opened it up. He set it on the platform beside him and attempted to manually straighten out the crinkled paper with little success. On it were the lyrics of the song Marshal mentioned scribbled onto the lined paper, Buttercup's lyrical interjections were written between brackets and highlighted in neon green. "Anyway, I have this wicked idea for a duet cover song of 'Swing Life Away' by Stand In Opposition that I want you to play it with me."

"Sure?" Buttercup phrased the word as if it were a question. "I don't know why you want me to do it. I can barely play guitar."

"Don't worry, it's easy. I'll show you." Marshal played a few chords to emphasize his point.

"Dude," deadpanned Buttercup, "why not just have Raven do it with you?" For some reason, she inwardly wanted to slap herself for asking that question. Of course Raven Hei is the logical choice for this role. _She_ can play guitar. _She_ can sing. Yet the tough-voiced drummer feared presenting that idea would make him drop everything and call for Raven instead.

"Because I think you're perfect for the part." Marshal replied simply.

The sincerity in his voice was shocking. Being the drummer, she was the only one in the band that didn't have to touch a stringed instrument and she barely – if ever – had singing parts in their songs. She felt the least equipped for the job. "Me? You're kidding right?" she asked, again wishing she'd shut her mouth before she convinces Marshal to make Raven take her place.

"No, I'm serious," appealed Marshal, "You have this nice mezzo-soprano tone to you that not many other girls here have. You have a beautifully unique singing voice. I think it is perfect to accompany this song. The guitar is going to be the easy part here, trust me."

To think her unflattering tomboyish voice would be called beautiful! That's one more thing to add to her list of things she'd never see coming. Buttercup felt a slight prickling warmth on her cheeks. It must be the wind, of course. "Well, okay, if you say so. Don't get upset if I mess this up," she responded with an uncharacteristic meekness to her voice.

"OK, OK, OK," Marshal thoughtfully twiddled his fingers, brows raised with excitement as he prepared himself for the lesson. "You just need to remember these four chords." Buttercup watched as intensely as she could while for each chord he listed, he positioned his fingers on the corresponding frets one by one and then slowly swept his his fingers across the strings so that she could identify the individual notes. "This one is the E minor chord. This is one is the G chord. Here is C with an added 9th triad. Finally, a suspended A."

 _The who goes where on the what, now?_ Buttercup blankly stared at her guitar, trying in vain to follow her friend's instructions. Despite Marshal's patience, Buttercup retained very little of what he explained. "OK, you've lost me," she said in resignation while trying to imitate his fingering but ended up playing an ugly combination of notes. She sighed, her brows knitted in frustration.

"I said it was easy but I don't expect you to get this right away," Marshal assured.

Buttercup sighed again. "It's just that I've got to get a feel for it, you know? It's hard for me to just watch someone else do it and play the same way."

"Alright, alright..." Slipping down from the parapet and setting his guitar down, Marshal approached Buttercup to assist her. "Shove over, I'll help you."

He felt his hip push against hers from her right side while his left arm reached across her back and grabbed the neck of her guitar from under her left arm. Buttercup stiffened a bit, feeling a little orb of anxiety form in the pit of her stomach. The world around the young drummer started to get a little hazy when she felt her heart knock violently against her ribcage. Each rapid beat felt like a monster's great fist, punching from within her. Trying to regain her composure, she forced a half-hearted smirk. "Ah… Geez, at least take me out to dinner first, Marsh," she joked with a slightly stressed titter.

"Oh shut up," Marsh replied with a laugh of his own, seemingly unaware in any change in her countenance. Buttercup felt the orb in her stomach shrink a bit, relived with the small outlet, but that annoying orb was still noticeably present. Getting back to business, Marshal positioned his fingers along the fret board. "This is what an E minor chord looks like. If you put your fingers over mine, maybe you can get a better feel for how to hit those notes and switch chords."

It was a strange time to notice, but Buttercup could feel his heartbeat gently thump against her back. She found herself adjusting her own breathing to match his without really knowing why. The haze in her head was getting thicker by the second and there was very little she could do to stop it. It managed to be comforting and terrifying at the same time. Buttercup lost the wit to make a sarcastic or snarky reply and simply nodded.

Noticing the embarrassing moisture from her hands, she hastily rubbed her left on her jeans and then placed it on top of Marshal's as suggested. Out of nowhere, Buttercup recalled those cheesy Bollywood dramas and boring romantic 'comedies' that Bubbles would make the Professor and the Girls watch every time it was her turn to choose for Movie Night. Like clockwork, the protagonist would always end up accidentally touching the hand of the love interest and pause, staring into each other's eyes. If she had any feelings for Marshal, she'd compare her situation to a scene in one of those movies. Swallowing hard, she resolved to think of nothing but her friend's instructions and did as her musically inclined friend suggested. With her other hand, she swept her fingers across the strings, playing a lovely combination of notes.

Marshal did the same for the other chords, letting her play with the notes until she got a feel for them by herself. She almost forgot about how Marshal's chin was touching her shoulder or his thigh resting against hers. Eventually she beamed when she got got the hang of chords. "Hey, check it out!" she exclaimed, strumming and changing chords with practiced ease. "I'm playing it!"

"Good! You know the song," Marshal said while getting up. Buttercup felt a hollow coldness she hasn't noticed before when Marshal returned to his spot, effectively tearing the comfortable blanket of warmth off of her with his absence. Returning to his sport on the parapet, he handed her the lyric sheet. "Just follow my lead."

He started playing, closing his eyes while lost to the music.

She looked down at the lyrics sheet, trying to identify where she was to sing. Her first line was at the third verse: "Are we getting closer, or are we just getting more lost?"

She expected to sing in unison with Marshal but was pleased when he improvised a harmony to the line.

The next verse, he went right back into the expected tone until once again, it was her turn to sing: "Let's unwrite these pages and replace them with our own verse."

Buttercup was a little surprised at herself for being able to sing in harmony with Marshal. It sounded a lot better than she'd expect from herself.

When they finished the song, Buttercup felt light as a feather, as if Marshal lifted the weight of all her worries and anxieties from her shoulders. The feeling of weightlessness was so literal that she actually had to check to make sure she was actually sitting on the bench and not floating around without noticing.

She realized the young artist was looking back at her with an odd smile. She didn't say a word but straightened her back a little.

Marshal broke the silence and said, "I just never saw such a serene smile on you. You're practically glowing."

Again, Buttercup felt her cheeks prickle with embarrassment from the realization that she spent the last ten seconds or so just staring silently at her friend with a dopey smile on her face.

Thankfully, Marshal seemed to drop the subject immediately and went straight to more important inquiries. "So? What's the verdict?" he asked, fixing his hair once again with his fingers.

Buttercup opened her mouth to answer but was cut off by an unexpected voice accompanied by the sound of applause. "Brilliant! You guys sounded great!"

"Whoa-geez!" the startled Buttercup gasped. She whirled around to find the other three friends standing by the door to the roof.

Vinny continued, "We only caught part of it. Gonna encore for us? I'd like to hear the whole thing."

Buttercup and Marshal exchanged glances. "Er, maybe another time," Marshal answered, hopping down from his spot. "It's almost time for the school to lock up anyway."

"Yeah, it's almost time," agreed Raven, "but first you two should check out what JP has cooked up for our last song."

JP took the cue to step forward and hold out his laptop for emphasis. "Sure, let's check it out," said Marshal.

Soon JP sat on the bench with his laptop while the other four kids huddled around him and stared at the screen.

Marshal's eyes were practically sparkling in awe at the music video JP had put together. "I can't believe it. You did all of this just now? It looks like the stuff you see on television!"

"Yeah, dude," Buttercup added, "How do you pull this off is so little time?"

JP blinked at Buttercup blankly and innocently replied, "With my laptop."

Buttercup went silent, attempting to process his answer and how to respond to that. Moments later, JP's eyes lit up, with realization it seems, and added, "Oh, and with my editing software," before looking back at his computer screen, not realizing he still took her question way too literally.

 _Oh, JP..._

Buttercup chuckled softly and patted him on the shoulder. Moments later, she felt a vibration on her hip. The sensation reminded her that she forgot to put her watch back on or check for alerts after practice. She hurriedly yanked the green watch from one of the pockets of her jeans to reveal that Blossom was calling her on the display. Stepping away from the rest of the kids she answered, "What's up?"

"Buttercup!" Blossom's indignant voice answered, "Where is your phone?"

"Er, in my bag," she replied, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.

Obvious irritation revealed itself in the redhead's voice as she said,"That's very irresponsible of you! You've missed the alarm the Mayor's sent us and I've been trying to call you forever! Why did it take so long for you to pick up?"

"Alright, I'm sorry! I was a little preoccupied, alright? I probably missed the calls with all of the noise." Buttercup replied defensively.

There was an audible sigh from Blossom's end. "OK, that's not important. What is important is that we've got a situation over here. Looks like a giant mutant cockroach and..."

Aside from Blossom's voice, Buttercup could hear Bubbles in the background, her already high-pitched voice raised up into a falsetto that could probably be used to torture dogs. "Ew, ew, ew! I can't do it! Don't make me touch it!"

"… we've already got one out of commission," Blossom finished. "Can you help me out here?"

"Yeah, sure. On my way," Buttercup answered. She ended the call with the press of a button and let out an exasperated breath. She turned to the other four with her. "Hey guys. Duty calls. You know the drill. Save Townsville or whatever."

"You don't sound too enthusiastic about going," observed Raven.

At that, Buttercup shrugged dismissively while grabbing her belongings. "Yeah, well, I kinda wanted to see that music video, so..."

"JP can send you the video on IM tonight, right JP?" Marshal asked, in which JP answered with a nod.

The raven haired drummer bobbed her head and smiled slightly. "Okay, looking forward to it." Truth be told, the video was more of an excuse for how she felt than the actual root of her feelings. Very few things outranked Buttercup's love for getting bad guys acquainted with her fists. The time she had with her friends just now felt so special and perfect that it became one of those few things. Still, duty is duty and she knew she would feel much better once she was in the fight with her sisters. She slipped her watch back on and pinged Blossom's location with a tap of the screen. It pointed to the direction of the business district in the city.

"Later Buttercup!" Vinny called after Buttercup while she lifted herself into the sky, "Make sure to tattoo my name into the monster's butt with your heat vision for me!"

Buttercup snorted and giggled. "I like the way you think, Vin! I'll see what I can do," she called back. After their final goodbyes, she launched herself toward the action. Very quickly during her flight did she discover that directions weren't necessary. All she had to do was follow the smoke and flashes of light on the horizon. In her approach he saw giant cockroach standing in an intersection just east of the city square. For a cockroach, giant can qualify for a cockroach the size of a human or even a large rat but this thing was the size of a house.

Bubbles remained paralyzed with fear while she helplessly watched her red haired sister struggle to match the strength of the mutant cockroach's powerful mandibles. She wanted to help Blossom – she really did, but when she saw the sickening pale ooze dripping from the monster's mouth, every muscle in the blonde's body screamed at her to keep away.

"Bubbles!" Blossom called out between grunts of exertion, "a little help here!"

Once again she tried to approach upon her heroic sister's beckon, but it was as if some invisible force was pushing back at her every time she caught sight of the disgusting monster's compound eye. During its struggle with Blossom it made a horrifying clicking noise and spit more pale goo onto Blossom. "Ew-ew-ew-ew-ew!"Whatever progress Bubbles made in approaching was reversed and then some when she scampered away at the sight. An uncomfortable tingle washed over her body from her ears to her toes. "I-I-I can't!" Bubbles whimpered. "I'm sorry!"

"Figures," sighed Blossom. The disappointment in Blossom's voice stung Bubbles with guilt.

Blossom heaved a deep breath and then exhaled a plume of scorching flame into the monster's face. It didn't do too much to the oddly heat resistant monster but it was enough to make it flinch and reel back. That gave Blossom plenty of time to slip out of the cockroach's grip. It retaliated by swinging its four front legs (arms?) at Blossom wildly but she deftly zigged and zagged out of the way. It ended up slashing at the buildings around it.

"Hey! What'd I miss?" shouted Buttercup from above the two. "Ugh, and Bloss, what's that goop all over you?"

"It took you long enough!" Blossom shouted back, seemingly ignoring her question. "Mind helping me with this thing?"

Buttercup cracked her knuckles and smirked. "Not at all." Already she closed in on the house sized monster. It slashed at her with its scythe-like forelimbs but Buttercup effortlessly avoided the attacks and closed in with a flying kick. Perhaps she hit it a little too hard. The monster was sent reeling back into another building behind it. The cloud of dust and rubble provided Buttercup excellent cover to maneuver around it. The filthy mutated insect pushed itself off of the building but the commotion caused it to lose sight of Buttercup. She sneaked up to its blind spot, a little behind the shiny red carapace on its back.

"Sup," she said, reaching the side of its head. The monster responded by wildly swinging one of its top limbs at her but Buttercup was too quick. Already she elbowed the creature in the side of the head and then sent it flying down the street with her signature power punch. The insect left a trail of destruction with its short flight. Traffic lights and street lamps were uprooted. Cars and truck were knocked over into the sidewalks and adjacent buildings. Lastly, a large, ugly gash was dug into the street upon the monster's landing.

This bug couldn't pick a worse part of the city to start a fight. The business district was full of high-rises and expensive structures. With how tightly packed the buildings were, it seemed like collateral damage was inevitable. Buttercup gave it chase but Blossom held back for a moment to bark orders at Bubbles.

"Bubbles, make yourself useful and make sure this area is properly evacuated." The redheadded hero pointed to a stout white tower in the south corner of the intersection they were near. There were bits crumbling off of the giant cockroach gashes and hints of flames from within. "Start with that one. It's in the worst shape and I get the feeling that someone is still in there." Without another word she took off after Buttercup and the mutant cockroach, leaving Bubbles to turn and look at the building. On one hand, she was relieved that she didn't have to fight the cockroach or come into contact with any of its horrifying bodily fluids. On the other hand, she felt terrible for how little she contributed to that fight. She couldn't help being terrified of seeing it, let alone touching it. It was an odd fear for her considering she loved animals, even most bugs, but cockroaches? She couldn't stand them.

She may as well make herself useful though. She burst into the top floor of the building through the window. Now that she got a good look inside, the place appeared to be a research lab of some sort. Glassware, complex machinery and microscopes sat upon the counters of the sterile looking room. The regular lights were replaced with the angry red glow of emergency lights. She noticed the 'combustible' warning labels on many of the chemicals in the cabinets above. It was a good thing she payed attention in science class. If there are other labs like this one in the building, it would explain all of the fires.

"Hello?" She called out, floating through the lab, "I'm here to rescue you! Anybody home?!" She opened the door to the main hall. Thick plumes of smoke lined the ceiling. Alarms blared but it didn't prompt the sprinklers to turn on. The fire must be somewhere below. The people in this building had plenty of time to escape. He couldn't imagine why someone would still be in here but Blossom had an uncanny ability to sense danger and Bubbles learned to explicitly trust Blossom's intuition. Someone must be in here. "Hello?" She called out again. "Anyone here? I'm here to rescue you!"

As the words left her mouth, she noticed the building shaking and the sound of something heavy in the distance crumbling. If she wasn't floating in mid-air at the time she would have felt it too. She heard a distant "Help!" and froze in place. She wasn't sure where it came from at first. She looked around, trying to identify the source of the noise.

"Heeeeey!" Bubbles called out. "Yell again!"

"Help!" cried out the voice again. It was clearly the voice of an adult female, likely someone who worked here. Even with her super-human hearing, the voice was so faint that she needed to strain to pick up. "I'm trapped!"

Bubbles noticed an air vent nestled in the wall. The woman's voice carried through it. It couldn't be a lab since they were self-contained but maybe from an admin office or break room? Bubbles approached the vent and called back. "Don't worry, I'm coming for you!" She wasn't sure if the woman could hear her at all but it didn't matter. She mapped out the sound that traveled through the vent in her mind. The vent seemed to lead to quite a few places but the voice of the woman seemed to be coming from somewhere with a lot of metal for her voice to bounce off of. It was a straight vertical opening.

An elevator shaft!

Thanks to her echolocation ability, Bubbles knew exactly where the elevator shaft was despite knowing next to nothing about the layout of the floor. She raced to the direction of the elevator and was rewarded with the sight of the steel sliding doors that separated the shaft from the rest of the building. Thanks to the power outage, the doors were locked shut but that was hardly an issue to Bubbles. Without hesitation, the young blonde wedged her little fingers between the cracks of the door and yanked it open. The doors stood little chance against her super-human might as her only outward sign of effort was a small grunt. The elevator was below in the dark shaft. It looked to be stuck on the second floor above ground level. Quickly, she dropped to the elevator below and ripped open the ventilation grating like it was aluminum foil.

A young adult in a lab coat stood inside, pressed into the corner of the elevator. She let out a startled yelp when Bubbles tore through the top of the lift. The scientist's countenance turned to that of relief when Bubbles made eye contact with her. "Oh, it's you," she said, "I'm saved!"

"OK, we're busting you out of here," Bubbles said, dropping down.

"Be careful!" cried out the scientist, "There's a fire behind that door!"

Smiling sweetly at the young woman, Bubbles removed one of her bangles and flicked the side of it with her middle finger. It let out a familiar chime that Bubbles hummed in unison to with practiced ease.

"I'll get you out safe. I promise," she said gently. Channeling her energy through the bangle, it started to glow blue and float between her hands. She streamed more energy into her piece of jewelry and the hoop rotated faster and faster. Blue swirls of energy rotated along with it at an increasingly violent pace.

The air picked up inside the elevator as well, tugging at her dress and pigtails along with the scientist's lab coat.

"Okay, stand back!" announced Bubbles. Finding she stored enough energy into the bangle to prime her horizontal tornado attack, she knocked open the elevator doors with a mighty kick. The flying doors provided enough air pressure to keep the angry flames from bursting into the elevator. With a quick thrust of her arms, the bangle shot out of the elevator and brought a blue whirlwind with it to the outside world. It sucked up the flames around it and blasted it off harmlessly through a window on the opposite side of the building. Flames still angrily rose but it left a safe pathway outside of the building. Now satisfied with her handiwork, Bubbles use the remaining energy stored in the bangle to change its trajectory back to her. With ease that can only be accomplished with years worth of skill, she let the bangle slip neatly back onto her wrist with a simple outstretch of her arm.

"Neat, huh?" She chimed, looking up at the awestruck scientist. "Ever since I've discovered I can channel my energy through these things I've been coming up with all sorts of new tricks."

"Wow, what a sight to see a Powerpuff Girl in action up close..." the scientist said in awe.

Remembering where she was and what she was doing all of the sudden, she giggled a little with embarrassment. "Oh, right, there's no time for chit-chat. I've got heroing to do!"

She promptly scooped up the scientist and flew her outside to safety. She set her down on the sidewalk in front of the underground parking lot for the building. "You should be safe here," Bubbles said.

"Th-Thank you!" the scientist exclaimed. "I don't know what would happen if you didn't come by."

"Just doing my job, ma'am," said Bubbles. "By the way... why were you even in there still? It's too dangerous with a monster attacking here."

"I know..." The scientist responded, "But Jenny and I saw a little boy go in there."

"A little boy?"

"Yeah, some odd looking kid with blue hair."

"Why would a kid want to go into a place like that at this time?"

"Beats me. Probably one of my co-worker's kids, the poor thing. So we went in there to save him before he'd get hurt."

"Wait, 'Jenny and I?' so there are two more in there?"

"I hope Jenny found the kid and left already but it is possible they are still in there."

Bubbles bit her bottom lip as worry started to set in. "I'll find them," she said before flying back into the building. She crashed through the wall into a lab on the 4th floor. She felt a little bad for destroying part of the building like that, especially seeing all of the fancy equipment and expensive looking interior but lives were at stake, especially that of a young child. "If you can hear me, please yell back!" She shouted. There was no response.

Bubbles lowered herself to the smooth tile and dropped on all floors with an ear to the floor. She closed her eyes, trying to block out the blaring of the alarms. She slowed her breathing and concentrated. She didn't want to miss a single vibration. She felt the crumbling of collapsing rooms. She hoped she wasn't too late.

Thankfully, she wasn't! She felt the rhythmic pattering of footsteps. By the feel of it, it must be a kid wearing sneakers of some sort. He seemed to be taking his sweet time given the state of the place but without a doubt it was her target. "Found you..." she whispered to herself. She launched herself in the direction of the sound. Without hesitation she tore though any door that got in her way, blasting through the halls to her target.

She met the kid in an open sitting room walking to and from who-knows-where with a purple backpack hitched over his shoulder. "Heeey! Wait!" Bubbles called after him. The boy stopped in his tracks and looked at Bubbles. "Thank goodness, you're okay," she said. "Why are you-?" Bubbles cut herself off and gasped when she saw the ceiling over the kid's head start to crumble. "Watch out!" She lunged at him, grabbing him close as they both fell to the floor. With her on top of him, she was able to protect him from the falling debris above. She felt the barrage of concrete, steel beams and whatever equipment that was above them crash into her back. Although a little painful, she could handle the impact much more than the child beneath her could. Once the commotion had settled, she pushed herself out of the rubble, only letting the young child go when she was sure he was out of harm's way. "Are you okay?" she asked. "You're not hurt, are you?"

The boy blinked at Bubbles in silent shock for a short moment. Soon afterward, his eyes widened with worry as he hurriedly peeled open his denim jacket in search of something. "Squeaky?" He exclaimed to Bubbles' confusion. He patted the pouch of his sweater underneath with an obviously unsatisfactory result. "Squeaky!" he exclaimed in panic, turning back to the rubble and pulling back debris.

"Squeaky…?" Bubbles wondered. "Er, is that your pet?"

Bubbles wasn't sure what to expect, especially with the name 'Squeaky' but when a reddish rodent climbed out from between the collar of his purple jacket and his sweater, it all came together. An animal enthusiast like Bubbles could easily identify it as a chipmunk at first glance.

"Squeaky!" The kid chirped happily, gently picking the little guy and cradling him in his hands.

"So that's Squeaky? Aww, he's so cute," cooed Bubbles. She bent forward a bit so that she and the boy were at eye level.

"Y-yeah," The boy replied shyly.

Bubbles noticed a bluish knit toque under her foot. She wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for the gleam of the little heard shaped pin fastened to it. "Oops. Is this yours?" She picked it up and dusted it off and then decided to put it on his head for him since his hands were occupied at the moment.

"Thanks..." came the boy's meek reply.

" _Are_ _not hurt little guy_ _?"_ Bubbles asked the chipmunk while petting him behind the neck. " _That was a lot of stuff falling on us and I didn't know I was protecting a second body."_

" _I am not hurt,"_ replied Squeaky, _"Thanks to you, human. You are kind like my human friend!"_

Bubbles giggled and petted Squeaky again, only noticing that the boy was staring at her curiously a moment later. To him the conversation must have sounded like incoherent chittering.

"Squeaky is fine. And it sounds like he likes you quite a lot," translated Bubbles, while watching the chipmunk climb into the breast pocket of his jacket with amusement.

The boy just stared at her with an odd expression. He didn't need words as his face was enough to say, 'How could you figure that out from just saying _peep peep peep_ at him?'

With realization, Bubbles further said, "Oh, I guess I should explain: I can communicate with animals."

"Really? Cool!" Exclaimed the child, purple eyes widening with newfound enthusiasm.

"Yeah! I think it's called…" Bubbles scratched her head and looked skyward at nothing in particular. "What did Blossom call it again? Zoopathy? I think that's it."

"Wish I could do that!" He exclaimed.

"So, what's your name little boy?"

The kid's shyness reappeared as he meekly replied, "Er, Buster..."

"Buster?" She repeated, playing with the word in her mind. "That's cute name for a cute boy."

Buster's lips curled into a slight smile as a hue of red slowly appeared on his caramel skin.

She scooped him up in her arms and took flight. "This place is still dangerous." Suddenly memory of another person returned to her. "Oh no, I'm such a dummy!" She groaned. "Buster, did you see anybody else in here with you? Was someone with you or looking for you in here?"

"I don't think so," Buster replied.

"Ohhhh, I'm such a scatterbrain!" Bubbles felt like she was about to have a panic attack. Where could the second woman possibly be?

As if on cue there was a great crash from behind them. A blonde boy appeared with a woman in his hands, trailed by a blue afterimage. Bubbles made eye contact with him and her eyes widened in surprise. "… Boomer?"

Boomer looked back at her with dumbfounded surprise. A column of debris fell from above, breaking their line of sight for just a moment, but when it disappeared, he disappeared along with it.

"Huh? What was Boomer doing here?" She wondered. "Did he just save that other scientist? Maybe he kidnapped her for Mojo Jojo to force her to help him with some evil experiments?" She was going to find out, but first she needed to bring the child in her arms to safety.

She flew out of the building and dropped the boy off in the same place where she left the scientist only to find the other scientist already there! There was no trace of Boomer but the scientist was facing away from the crumbling building and looking into the sky, likely in the direction that Boomer took off.

"Er, M-Ma'am- Jenny, right?" Beckoned Bubbles.

The scientist distractedly turned her head to Bubbles at the mention of her name. "Yes, that's me."

"Are you okay? You're not hurt?"

"A little shaken up, but I'm fine, I think," Jenny answered.

"That boy… what happened?" Bubbles then asked.

"Well, we were evacuating when I saw that kid go inside," Jenny explained, pointing to Buster. "It uh… it all happened so fast. So, Clare and I decided to split up and go look for him before he gets hurt. I was looking in one of the labs and then everything just… exploded around me. I got my leg stuck under one of our spectrometers. I thought it was all over for me back there but then someone swooped in and saved me." She paused for a moment and made a point of looking at Bubbles. "For a moment, I thought he was you, Bubbles. But, well, you know, he's a he. And then I saw you holding that kid as we escaped."

"Did he say anything to you? Did he do anything?" Bubbles asked.

"Er, not that I noticed, he didn't," admitted Jenny with a scratch of her head. "He just flew in, pulled all of the junk off of my leg, took me here and flew off into the sunset. I didn't even get a chance to thank him."

Bubbles bit her bottom lip. She knew exactly who that was. "Boomer." she uttered.

"Boomer?" repeated Jenny. She rubbed her chin, brow furrowed in contemplation. "Boomer… Boomer… that name sounds so familiar."

"That's right," the other scientist, presumably Clare, piped in. She snapped her fingers for emphasis "He's one of the infamous Rowdyruff Boys, isn't he?"

Jenny's eyes lit up with realization. "No way. Those kids from, like, what? Six, seven years ago? After the incident back then they kind of disappeared from the face of the earth. I assumed they were rotting in jail or dead or something and sort of forgot they even exist."

Claire said, "It's just a rumor but I've heard that some crazy lady decided to adopt the Rowdyruff Boys. If it's true, do you think she regrets it by now?"

Jenny shook her head solemnly. "All three of them? She would be lucky to be alive to regret it."

"You're right. I'm finding it difficult to believe it's one of the Rowdyruff Boys who saved you, Jen," said Claire, "Those boys were rotten to the bone. Maybe it's some other kid with superpowers that saved you?"

Jenny put a hand to her forehead. "I'm not sure what's easier to believe: Being saved by a random kid with superpowers other than the Powerpuff Girls or being saved by one of the most dangerous villains in the city?"

Bubbles couldn't blame the scientists for thinking that way. She wasn't sure about the other boys but she thought the same way about Boomer up until recently. She wanted to be open-minded about the capacity of others to change but when she first saw Boomer in that lab, her first inclination was to think he was up to no good. Still, she recalled speaking to Boomer earlier today. Even during the brief interaction there was something about him that felt so genuine and disarming; a far cry from the Boomer she remembered years prior. That honest nature was enough for Bubbles to feel the need to apologize for her bristly demeanor.

Still, it was awfully convenient for him to just pop up and save this woman before her. Why was he here in the first place?

Her thoughts were distracted by the sound of combat some ways off. "Sounds like they are still at it," Bubbles muttered to herself. With that, she turned to face the two scientists. "I need you to evacuate this area just in case something unexpected happens." Dropping to one knee, she then put a hand on Buster's shoulder, garnering his attention. "This brave little boy's name is Buster. I'm sure you two can take good care of him until he finds his parents."

"Of course," said Jenny. "We'll make sure he's safe."

Bubbles smiled at Buster. "And I know you'll be keeping your friend Squeaky out of trouble, right?"

Buster nodded with a shy yet enthusiastic smile.

Noting that she had to join her sisters whether she likes it or not, she excused herself from the presence of the child and two scientists and took flight toward the ongoing battle.

Looming over the monster scrambling to right itself, Buttercup cracked her knuckles and rolled her shoulders. The beast looked absolutely pathetic, laid out in the middle island of a large roundabout and using the towering statue of a bronze horse at its centre as leverage to get up. It was unclear as to whether the giant cockroach monster was scared or just exhausted but it ceased to initiate attacks and went for a more defensive method. After the beating she and Blossom delivered it looked like it had about enough, but Buttercup was just getting started. "Alright, warm-up is over," she announced, a sadistic smile creeping on her features as the floodgates of creative ways to dispatch this monster released in her mind. "Time for the good part."

"Buttercup, can you at least try to keep the damage to the city at a minimum this time?" Blossom pleaded from behind her.

"Oh, fine. I'll try but no promises," Buttercup said. At that moment, she had a wicked idea. She could go all out if her attacks were pointed at the sky. "Bloss," Buttercup beckoned, hitching her thumb upwards. "Sky high combo?"

"A two person sky high combo?" Blossom asked, blinking. She looked around in search of the third Powerpuff Girl. "It would be perfect if we had..." Right on time, she looked over her shoulder and her eyes lit up in recognition at a figure approaching from behind her. "Oh, Bubbles! Just in time! You ready to go for a-?"

"Eeep!" Squeaked bubbles, doubling back to hide behind a trash bin. "I can't! It's disgusting!"

Blossom shook her head, brows furrowed in disappointment. "Okay. Two person sky high combo it is, then."

"Sweet," Buttercup cheered. "Don't worry, we got this."

She blasted off toward the mutant like a fighter jet, letting energy swell into her right arm. Instead of coming into contact with the monster, she immediately changed her trajectory straight downward a few metres shy of the giant insect and slammed her fist into the ground. Cracks emerged in the ground, creeping up to the monster until suddenly, a geyser of energy erupted underneath it, effectively launching the hideous creature directly upward.

Now with its softer belly exposed, Blossom positioned herself directly underneath the creature and smashed it with a devastating uppercut to the belly. Still not finished, she outstretched her palms. Two pink beams of energy struck it and sent it helplessly flying even further into the air. Meanwhile Buttercup ripped the statue from the ground by the bronze horse's head and used it as an over sized impromptu club to bat the monster upward with as Blossom pressed her wrists together, effectively making the two beams coalesce into one massive column of energy.

With enough kinetic energy to send the monster as high up as the clouds, Buttercup and Blossom gave each other a high-five for a successful two person sky high combo. Still, the job wasn't done. Both rocketed up in the sky to meet with the monster while it was still locked in an upward trajectory.

Predictably, the creature slashed at the girls with its limbs in desperate hope of a lucky hit. Blossom dodged with the grace and skill to be expected from her, but Buttercup had other plans. She grabbed the limb that was coming for her. With her superior strength, she found the joint of the monster's limb and bent it completely the wrong way. The creature made a harsh screeching noise, it's song of pain.

Smiling sadistically, Buttercup furthered its agony by ripping the limb off and using it to bat the monster in the face. By then, the air was starting to thin and get colder as they skimmed the clouds at the apex of the monster's flight.

Now flailing in agony, the monster was about to drop back to earth but Blossom held it aloft by its antennae. "Oh no you don't. You're not going back down there," Blossom said. "How about we send you to where you belong?"

"Oops, I should have brought that statue with me," Buttercup mused, realizing she left the statue behind at ground level. She hefted the severed arm of the monster on her shoulder, rapping her knuckles across the red carapace to test its sturdiness for what she was about to do. "This is a little too brittle for my tastes. Oh well, a good Powerpuff Punch should do." She shielded her eyes from the setting sun and looked over the body of water that stretched beyond the horizon off of Townsville's coast, Finally spotting the little island off the coast appropriately named Monster Island, Buttercup licked her finger and held it in the air to estimate the wind speed and direction.

"Ready Buttercup?" Blossom called out, all set to toss the monster toward Buttercup.

"A little to the left," Buttercup told Blossom while she kept one eye open and measured the perfect angle with a finger. Blossom obliged, moving in the direction that Buttercup pointed to until Buttercup held out a hand. "Perfect. Now toss him to me and I'll let 'em have it!"

Still holding the monster by its antennae, Blossom spun around in place, twirling the monster around her like an Olympic hammer thrower. She released the monster letting it fly toward Buttercup. Buttercup was more than ready for this moment. Her fist glowed as she delivered an incredible punch to the monster's head, leaving a glowing green fist shaped mark on the spot she came in contact with. Not only did she smash her fist into the monster with enough force for a one way trip to Monster Island but the energy print she stamped it with left a delayed explosion. It shrunk and disappeared in the distance until seconds later, Buttercup was rewarded with a large plume of dirt that arose from Monster Island where the cockroach landed.

Buttercup pumped her fist, feeling more alive than ever at the utter beating they've given the monster. Even when down a girl, they delivered a beating of a lifetime to that monster and she couldn't be happier for it. She couldn't wait to contact her friends on IM and show them the giant cockroach leg she's collected.

"Another job well done," announced Blossom with hands proudly on her hips. She recoiled shortly afterward. Strands goop connected her fingers to her hip as she pulled her hand away. "Ugh. Monster slime. I really need to take a bath."

"It's worth it," Buttercup said, hefting the severed limb on her shoulder. "See? We've got a souvenir."

"Correction. _You've_ got a souvenir," said Blossom in a matter-of-fact tone.

Buttercup replied, "Fine by me. I'm hanging this bad boy over my bed."

It wasn't long until Bubbles joined the two. "Is it gone? It's gone, right?" Bubbles asked, cautiously approaching the others.

"Yup, we've defeated the monster," Blossom said.

"Yeah, no thanks to you," added Buttercup, using the severed cockroach leg to point at Bubbles.

"Well, at least I saved a couple of people from- OHMYGOSH! WHATISTHAT!?"

The delayed reaction from Bubbles was priceless to Buttercup. With a devious smirk, she decided to tease Bubbles a little. "It's a souvenir. My lucky mutant cockroach leg."

"Your what!?" Bubbles squealed.

"You know. It's like a lucky rabbit's foot but since it came from a giant mutant cockroach it's like, a hundred times more lucky. Wanna touch it?" She held it closer to her blonde sister who in turn screamed and backed away.

"Aiee! No stop it! Get it away from me!" screamed Bubbles, flying away to get some distance from Buttercup.

Buttercup gave Bubbles chase, trying her best to sound innocent in her desire to have Bubbles touch the severed monster limb. "Come on, Bubs! It's lucky! Just one little touch!"

"Noooo! Stooop!" Bubbles cried, circling back to Blossom and trying to use her as a shield. Moments after touching Blossom, Bubbles went pale and withdrew her hands. A glob of pale goop dripped off of Bubbles' hands "Waaaaaaah!" She then frantically flailed her arms, trying to get the disgusting fluid off of her.

"That's enough, Buttercup. Stop harassing Bubbles," said Blossom, though by the way she pursed her lips it looked like she was trying to hold in laughter. "Seems like we all need a bath now. Come on, let's go home."


End file.
